Hello Again

Hello Everyone,
I know it has been awhile since I have last written, but a lot had been going on over here. If you have been regularly checking my blog you will see that my last post contained some unfortunate news, but I will talk about that more later in my post. First, some good news, or possibly, more interesting news; what I have been up to lately.

As of Saturday (Sept 22) I have put in one full week of work at my home branch at Supermall Isesaki. It has been nice to be working on my own and not have someone peering over my shoulder the entire lesson. This has allowed me to build a better rapport with the students that I am teaching because I am more comfortable and not thinking about what my supervisor is writing about me. The whole process of OJT (on the job training) is a bit unnerving to say the least. Since I have a bit of experience under my belt now let me tell you what it’s like for me at Supermall Isesaki.

My work schedule is as follows: Saturday and Sunday I work from 10:50am – 6:20pm, strange hours, but they fit the forty minute class schedule. On Mondays and Tuesdays I work from 1:20pm – 9:00pm, and on Wednesdays I work from 2:15pm – 6:20pm. On Thursday and Friday I have my two days off of work for the week. In the course of the week I teach 37 lessons, each lasting 40 minutes, so Saturday – Tuesday I teach 8 lessons a day for a total of 32. On Wednesday I teach 5 lessons, which brings me to my total of 37 lessons per week. I’m sure the schedule sounds a little crazy to all of you, but I am slowly getting used, although I do not care for the fact that it is always dark by the time I get home.

A normal day at work consists of 8 lessons, as mentioned above. A lesson lasts 40 minutes, and can have anywhere from 1 to 4 students. I usually begin by making some small talk, asking about their morning/afternoon/weekend to get them in the English mood. Each student has a work book, for a given lesson each student will have the same workbook, and I will have a teachers copy of the workbook, the only difference is that it gives me a few more ideas of what I can do in the course of a lesson. After the warm-up, I will ask them to open their books to a certain lesson (I have chosen the lesson before I entered the room based on a file we keep that documents what lesson each student has done and when they did the lesson). Once they have opened their book the lesson starts, we look at pictures and I ask them simple questions, then I begin to teach them new vocabulary that is listed on the page. After that I model some phrases and do a listening exercise, so they can hear native English. Then we do an activity where they have the change to practice the new vocab they have learned. Finally I have them close their books and do an application where they must use what we have learned without referring to their book (sink or swim time) By the time that is done the bell usually sounds and it’s time to be finished. I ensure they don’t have any other questions, thank them for their time, and hurry back to the employee room. Between classes we usually have 10 or 15 minutes (depending on the time of day, in the evening we have 15), during this time I have to write comments about the last class, decide how the students did, find the files for the next class, choose a lesson for the students, and take a look at the lesson so I have something ready. Needless to say, many times we run out of time and simply go into the lessons and wing it, but it’s not too difficult. So in a normal day I repeat this process 8 times, it can get a bit stressful at time, but we all cope.

As promised I will now address the frustrating things that are going on with NOVA lately. If you have been reading my blog you have probably seen the news article I posted. Apparently NOVA is going through some financial trouble, and have been for some time. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has heavily sanctioned NOVA for false advertising campaigns, basically they were lying to their customers. As a result of this NOVA is not allowed to sign any long-term contracts until December, this means a severe lack of funds. This lack of funds has lead to may pressing issues, the main issue being the fact that many teachers have not been paid. Scheduled payday was Sept. 15 and many people have yet to be paid. This has not directly affected me as my first payday is scheduled to be Oct. 15, but I am a little worried that I may not be paid on time. Another issue that may be even scarier is the fact that many NOVA teachers are being evicted from their housing. NOVA has contracts with the landlords of the housing that we live in, so NOVA directly pays our landlords with money deducted from our paychecks. What this means is that NOVA has not been paying the rent, and has possibly been using the money deducted for rent to pay people, or possibly simply pocketing it as profit. It is quite a frustrating situation to be in. My plan is to see what happens on Oct. 15 and make my decision as to whether I will stay with the company or not. Personally I feel that I will have a hard time working for a company that has such shady ethics, but I am not making any decisions yet. I am truly enjoying Japan and this is simply a frustrating situation. Obviously speculation and rumor is rampant around the NOVA sector these days, but much of what you hear and read must be taken with a grain of salt, thus I am trying my best not to make up my mind as to what I will do before Oct. 15. That said you are all up to date on the current affairs of NOVA. If you would like to read more I will post some news sites that have been reporting on issues NOVA is having, some are based on Japan while others are in Australia and New Zealand.

Well that is about it for my blog this time around, it’s about time for me to go to bed, although I don’t work until 1:20pm tomorrow, I was up early this morning to catch a train to Kiryu, once again, but this time for kids training (I’ll explain in my next post) Even though the above news sounds pretty bad, I have not allowed to affect me, I am still have a good time in Japan, and am still glad I came, even if it doesn’t work out it has been an enriching experience. Miss everyone back home

Adam
As promised here are some links:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/18/1189881510131.html http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/foreign-teachers-face-axe-in-japan/2007/09/21/1189881777745.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hard-lessons-from-teaching-english-in-japan/2006/03/14/1142098460885.html?page=fullpage http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/teachers-unpaid-as-company-falters/2007/09/18/1189881511712.html
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070921/japan_nova_070921/20070922?hub=TopStories
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=2727 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070922TDY02008.htm http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070921TDY02003.htm
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070921a1.html