Japan Probe
If you’ve been following the news about the collapse of Japan’s largest chain of English conversation schools, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that Nova failed to keep its promise of paying teachers on October 19th (after failing to pay on the 15th). As a result, a large number of teachers and staff have simply stopped going to work. According to Let’s Japan, Nova’s office staff has sent out notices to all teachers that thank those who are still working and plead for other teachers to come back to work:
We totally understand your situation, but your decision not to work is making our company’s recovery worse. If we cannot provide lessons to students then we have to close branches. In this case, the company, that has not paid us, and those that don’t carry out their duty to work bear responsibility.
We can prosecute the company for the salary delay. If you chose to walk out on the job and not work it does more damage than good for the students and for your case against the company. Striking is a legal way to do this, rather than walking out. please try to stay calm, stand together and protest to get the public’s understanding and sympathy.
If you report to your home country’s Foreign Affairs Aministration, you can and solve this problem in a diplomatic way. The more of you that do this, the better because ther’s power in numbers.
Most teachers posting on forums and blogs have scoffed at such a request, seeing no reason to work for free in the wild hope that giving a few extra lessons would somehow save Nova from its horrible financial situation.
An article in the Asahi Shimbun on Nova’s future gives three possible outcomes of the current situation:
1.Nova goes out of business
2.Outside investors step in
3.Drastic restructuring
Even if Nova doesn’t go out of business, it’s a given that school branches will continue to close across Japan, possibly leaving some staff and teachers without jobs.
Another story that's gripping the Korean Penninsula!!!!!
Foreigners pick bibimbap as favorite Korean food: poll
Korea Herald (National Page)
Bibimbap, or rice with vegetables and red pepper paste, is the most popular local food among foreigners living in Korea, according to a poll released yesterday.
The survey, commissioned by the Corea Image Communication Institute, also found that nearly six out of 10 foreigners believed Korean food could be popular abroad.
The survey was conducted among 207 foreigners from Aug. 19 to Sept. 3 to measure the appeal of Korean food to foreigners and its potential in the global market.
It found that 79 percent of respondents enjoyed traditional Korean food and 59 percent said Korean food could be popular in other countries.
When asked about their favorite Korean food, 17 percent of respondents picked bibimbap. Bulgogi, or seasoned beef, came in second with 14 percent, while galbi (barbequed beef ribs) received 11 percent and kimchi (pickled cabbage) came in fourth at 5 percent.
More than half of the respondents ate at Korean restaurants over four times a month, it said.
Of those who said they enjoyed Korean food, more than 60 percent said they liked the taste, while 17 percent said they were enjoyed trying new and unfamiliar food. Over 14 percent said they felt the food was full of nutrition, the survey found.
Eighteen percent neither liked nor disliked Korean food, and 2.4 percent said they did not like it.
However, the spiciness and smell of Korean food were the main barriers to exporting the food abroad, the survey said.
The respondents also said proper sanitation and traditional interiors were essential in order for Korean restaurants to be successful abroad.
Here's a twisted and odd story...the Mainichi Daily News always seems to have sooooo many!
Panty sellers roll in the cash by rolling off their soiled skimpies in disabled toilets
Safety and easy accessibility is increasingly transforming toilets for the disabled at Tokyo's railway stations into marketplaces for schoolgirls' panties, according to Spa! (10/23).
Large numbers of high school girls are often seen going into the roomier johns and those in the know say the kind of business they're getting up to is not what normally goes on in public conveniences.
"They're actually engaged in burusera trading inside there," a writer specializing on the adult entertainment world tells Spa! Burusera, of course, is the name given to the panty trade, with the term derived from the manufactured English phrase "bloomer seller."Read More...
This was from the Editorial section of the Korea Herald...about teacher quality....again!
[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR] Class assessment
I enjoyed reading Steve Schertzer's letter, "A message to Korean parents" (Oct. 13). He pinpointed two problems in regard to recruiting and evaluating foreign teachers.
I am a Korean teacher teaching English in Gyeonggi Province and I have been in charge of supervising a foreign English teacher who has recently come to Korea.
It is a blessing to have a foreign English teacher at hand for the other Korean teachers and my students, who normally don't have any opportunities to communicate in English. As long as the foreign teacher does his best to help the students, English classes are fascinating.
However, there are some flaws in the system, most notably the process of evaluation.
According to the contract for foreign teachers, he had to conduct a class with me which was observed and evaluated by principals and other teachers last semester. I strongly believe that there is nothing wrong with the concept of an evaluation, but its criteria were too vague and unrealistic. Furthermore, a well-prepared demonstration lesson is no guarantee of teaching ability.
Instead, the lesson is just designed to give the impression that students learn and enjoy English in a desirably effective way and that the government's investment in English education improves student proficiency.
Moreover, it does not help teachers, Korean or foreign, develop lesson plans because all they need to do is please district supervisors and school administrators with their single, pre-rehearsed lesson. Some foreign English teachers spend their time surfing on the internet and do not care about their daily lessons or students. All they need to do is borrow some teaching materials from friends or copy a couple of pages from a course book.
I think the government must get rid of this bureaucratic process of evaluation and replace it with a system that will allow foreign English teachers to be judged in a fair and efficient way, and be well prepared for their classes.
Agnes Kim, Seoul
One more quick note about another "evil-empire" attempting to spread it's money-making tentacles...
Wal-Mart to take full ownership of Japanese retailer Seiyu
TOKYO (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday it will take full ownership of its money-losing Japanese subsidiary, Seiyu Ltd., as the U.S. retailer struggles to speed up management changes and reverse its slumping business in the world's second largest economy.Read More...
