ETJ at Linked In - On the Fallout after Nova and GEOS

Antony Martiniani Shinomiya asks: David Paul:
 
I was wondering. "How do you think the English Teaching market in Japan will evolve post Nova and Geos?
I have always admired your positive style and fun techniques, and would like your honest opinion, no strings attached.
What can we do as professionals to keep students interests, positive and constructive?
Or do we just go with the flow?

 

David Paul • I'm not sure that the Nova and Geos problems have had any effect on what we can do to keep students positive in the classroom, though the problems may have had a negative effect on the general perception of language schools.
I think the trend for a bit over ten years has been towards the non-Japanese small school owner. This trend was one of the causes of the Nova/Geos problems and was also accelerated by these problems. It has also been a big reason for the growth of ETJ.
Personally, I think the shift to these small schools is a very positive and constructive trend for English language teaching in Japan.

On the Big English School Chains in Japan

"The first group would have to be the eikaiwa [English conversation] chains: Geos, Aeon [pronounced Eon, trust me], Nova, and ECC. These schools recruit in North America frequently and will take anyone with a college degree..."--Peter Payne

"In the past, I've stated that I didn't like these English conversation school chains for various reasons, including, but not limited to, a) the lack of professional awareness of one's self as an educator, b) the lack of vacation time, and a potential high number of "on" hours (teaching up to seven hours of your workday, with only an hour for preparation), and c) overall, I think the chance that you'll have a bad "Japan Experience" is higher than at some other types of teaching jobs. Over time, I've come to reconsider some of my bad feelings about the schools. Sure, they are commodity operations, and if you work at one of them the manager of your school will do his best to fill your hours with productive (for him) teaching hours, and by and large, these schools do have a high teacher turnover rate. But still, the fact remains that Eikaiwa chain teaching jobs might be the only job available to you if you have no training, experience or connections; and working for a year at one of the chain schools is potentially a good way to get some experience while you learn about Japan."--Peter Payne http://www.peterpayne.net