JINES Newsletter

Editors Notes

Is it Christmas time already?

Yesterday I was walking around the shopping district of Namba in Osaka and I could not help but notice all the amazing Christmas trees on display. Absolutely beautiful, all lit up in their glory to celebrate this wonderful holiday period.

But wait! Didn't I just have a Halloween Party for all of our students yesterday? It just goes to prove that the life of an English school owner is never over. Now I have to start planning for a Christmas party.

Well here at Jines we are also in a hectic race against time before we launch version 2 of the Jines iPhone app. There are only 18 Days to go before we close off all entries, so if you have not registered yet don't waste any more time. And thanks to everyone who have sent along suggestions on how it should look. I can say that a few of these ideas have already been included into the design.

We are also encouraging school owners to enter the latitude and longitude of their schools in order for Google Maps to work correctly in the new iPhone application. You can do this by logging in to the admin area (Login here) and simply entering the two values in the appropriate box. If you don't know your coordinates, we encourage you to use Google Earth where it is quite simple to ascertain your lat and long.

In addition to the iPhone app we have been working on developing a professional development teacher training program for Japanese school English teachers. With the new regulations on English language education to be implemented next year we wanted to provide teachers a cheap and enjoyable study environment to upgrade their skills.

You can see more information on this program below in the Jines Jump Start section or go directly to the Jines blog (http://www.jines.jp/blog) where you can download a program brochure.

And lastly, don't forget that Tax time is fast approaching. Over the coming newsletters we will be giving out some quick tax tips gathered from all of our network schools. Having an English language school can be a big advantage when it comes to tax time in Japan. But if you are like me and not a tax accountant, sometimes it is hard to find out exactly what you claim for. So keep your eyes peeled to this newsletter as well as the blog for information, which may help you, reduce your tax burden.
So until next time, from here at Jines, Ho, Ho, Ho, oh no!

Peter Carter
Network Administrator

Jines Jump Start

Japanese English School Teacher Training in Dublin, Ireland

Through the Jines network of international schools we are proud to announce the first dedicated Professional Development and Training program for Japanese teachers of English.

This 1-week program will be held at the Centre for English Studies (CES) in Dublin, Ireland from March 26 ~ April 2, 2011.
CES has a dedicated Teacher Training Department and has designed a course specifically to suit the exact needs and requirements of the Japanese teacher of English.

There are 3-options to choose from and all of them are very competitive in price considering what is included.

Option 1 - Homestay = €638.00 (approx ¥71,900)

* 7 Nights accommodation in carefully selected Irish Host Families
* Single Room / All students located in the same Area
* Breakfast and Dinner included
* 26 Hours of Professional Development Tuition
* Classes are 9.00 to 13.00 Monday to Friday & 14.10 to 16.00 Tuesday to Thursday
* Minimum of 10 and Maximum of 16 teachers per class
* Course Book Rental and additional course material
* Airport greeting and airport transfer to chosen accommodation
* Welcome Pack
* Course Certificate
* Individual Student Report
* Access to CES Social and Cultural programme
* CES Self Access Centre / Computer Room and Library
* Japanese (bilingual) group leader attending the entire program

Option 2 - Twin Share Hotel Accommodation = €761.00 (approx ¥85,700)

* 7 Nights Twin Share Accommodation is provided by Blooms Hotel, located in the centre of Dublin (50 metres from CES) and is a 3 star Bed & Breakfast Hotel.
* Breakfast only included
* And all additional tuition services mentioned in option 1

Option 3 - Single Room Hotel Accommodation = €879.00 (approx ¥99,100)

* 7 Nights Single Room Accommodation is provided by Blooms Hotel, located in the centre of Dublin (50 metres from CES) and is a 3 star Bed & Breakfast Hotel.
* Breakfast only included
* And all additional tuition services mentioned in option 1

There are additional nights accommodations available upon request if you would like to do some additional sightseeing before or after the program.

Please note this does not include return airfares to Dublin, Ireland. To keep costs to an absolute minimum we have decided it best if participating teachers arrange their own airfares depending on where they are living throughout Japan.
For example, it is much cheaper for a teacher residing in Fukuoka to fly via Seoul than to travel to Tokyo first and depart from Narita.

In addition, to keep costs to a minimum we are arranging for all teachers to pay CES directly. As such Jines and the Jines network member schools will receive no commission on student tuition fees.

This program is open to teachers of all school ages and will be a wonderful experience, in a beautiful and exciting city, for professional education and training development. We hope you all agree too.

For any questions (in English or Japanese) on the above program please do not hesitate to contact me and don't forget you can download a brochure from the Jines blog page on the Internet.

Happy Studying!

Ms. Taeko Kashiwagi
Study Abroad Administrator
kashiwagi@jines.jp

Taeko Kashiwagi comes to Jines with a solid background in ESL education. Starting out as a receptionist with Nova Corp., she became an English language student in Sydney, Australia. After completing her language studies as well as additional vocational studies with Southbank Institute of TAFE she then worked in the study tour section of Queensland College of English. After a number of years in the travel industry Taeko returned to education where she took up the position of Centre Administrator for the IELTS test centre at Griffith University, Australia before returning to Japan.

Education News On Japan

Small schools offer hope amid eikaiwa slump
Nov 02
The collapse of the Geos eikaiwa (English conversation school) chain earlier this year came as a cruel blow to an industry still struggling to restore its credibility years after Nova's high-profile implosion. Since the Nova bankruptcy of 2007, the financial situation at the major schools has continued to worsen, with both student numbers and sales dropping, and many teachers are now looking for ways to make money outside the big eikaiwa model. Throughout Kanto, however, there are teachers who have managed to make the market work for them through a little innovation. (Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20101102zg.html

Nobelist urges youth to go abroad, study
Nov 02
Nobel Prize laureate Akira Suzuki urged Japanese youngsters Monday to study abroad and broaden their views, just as more are growing hesitant to do so. The chemist also called on senior academics to make greater efforts to instill in younger generations a sense that science and technology are interesting, as science is crucial to the country's survival. "(While I was abroad) I made many foreign friends. (I also got to know that) there is a world out there that we do not know," Suzuki said at a luncheon at Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. He spent two years from 1963 as a doctoral research fellow at Purdue University. (Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101102a6.html

Study abroad key to Japan's future
Oct 19
The lack of student interest in studying abroad is casting a shadow over the future of this quickly graying nation, according to a noted German business professor. "I can't overemphasize the importance of studying abroad," David Bach, the 35-year-old dean of programs at the IE Business School in Madrid, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times. "It's incredibly important for Japan to have global managers. I think a global management education experience is a very important contribution to that, knowing people from all over the world, learning from them and learning a foreign language." (Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101019f1.html

50 Geos branches will be renamed
Oct 15
Nagoya-based investment fund Inayoshi Capital Partners said Thursday that about 50 of its 167 Geos foreign-language school branches will be renamed Nova X Geos after November. ICP also said it will close down about 20 Geos branches whose business areas are overlapping with those of Nova. The company said students of those schools will be relocated to the nearby Nova schools or receive lessons via Nova's unique video-phone system. (Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101015a9.html

Joining Jines
It's free for independent school owners to list their schools in the Jines Directory.

Follow the link below to register and enter your school details into the database.

At any time you will be able to modify or delete your entry.

Join / Login here!

Jines charges no service fee for the schools to join, nor does it charge the Japanese student to access the information contained within this website.

The purpose of Jines is to provide a gateway for Japanese students to locate a suitable school in addition to providing a forum for school owners to share ideas on improving English language services in Japan.

For more information, contact:

Peter Carter
Japan's Independent Network of English Schools
http://jines.jp/
3-22 Kanda-cho
Higashi Osaka-shi
Osaka 579-8058
JAPAN
Tel: +81 72 981 8806