Nova @ MindSay 
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Take two...
Okay then...
Job? Check.
Apartment? Check.
Insurance? Check.
Internet? Stolen for now, but check.
Seems like I have everything basically in order. Time to update a bit!
NOVA is no more. I quit the moment I heard about employees not getting paid. Realistically NOVA still owes me a sum of around 30,000 yen, but I don't expect to ever see that money. Doesn't matter tho, I'm doing just fine.
I have a new job through a company called W5 Staff Services. They are an intermediary who hire people for various public and private sector positions. Although I report to W5 for my pay and such my real employer is the Higashi Osaka Board of Education. I work at three schools overall, a Junior High School on three days a week and two elementary schools once a week each. I am still teaching English but I have an actual classroom, actual students and almost double the pay. Can't really complain to be truthful.
A word about Eikaiwa (NOVA especially but all Eikaiwa fall under this category at least a little):
The basic concept of an Eikaiwa is a great one. A place where you can study a language under the tutalige of a native speaker. Realistically, the books do most of the teaching and the teachers are just there for help with grammar and pronunciation, but I really think the schools help build confidence and are a great place to make friends and test out your language skills.
That said, far too many of the teachers don't care or make very VERY poor instructors. Most are fresh out of collage and just want to have sex with foreigners, which is sad because most of the students I met weren't interested in going out with a NOVA teacher, yet were subtly hit on by many. With the language barrier solidly in place for most this caused many to become embarrassed; a fact a few students relayed to me in Japanese after lessons. While the idea of the Eikaiwa is a great one, the execution is a bit off.
My roommates are another story. I wrote before that I was lucky to have them... That isn't a lie as I really liked the one from New England. He was a stand up guy and easy to get along with. The one from Canada, however, I am very glad to be rid of.
I am of the opinion that Marijuana is not an addictive substance, but this guy did his damndest to prove me wrong. If he wasn't talking about sex (and how much he wanted to have sex with students, staff and pretty much anything with a xx chromosome) he was going on and on about how much he wanted... no, NEEDED to get high. He drank like a fish, claimed that everyone at his NOVA branch absolutely adored him and how he was going to go home in six months or so. He would always try to convince me to go Karaoke with him and the others, a pastime I am not fond of. One day he was playing a song on his iPod that I happened to like. I started singing along to it, and just as I was about to say "hey, maybe I WILL go to Karaoke with you..." he says "Stop fucking singing or I'm changing the song." I obliged and gave him a smile.
The last thing I said to him before he left the NOVA apartment was "try not to get too tired". I wanted to say something nice, but not insincere. I couldn't care less about his luck or health, but he probably should try not to get too tired, so I went with that.
As for my other roommate I wish him all the luck in the world. He is a great guy and I wish I could have hung out with him some more.
So now I have my own, private apartment. I work with Japanese people all day so my Japanese language skills have been improving exponentially, even my written! My workmates are all dedicated to teaching, so I don't hear stuff like "It's so much more fun to go to work drunk!" or "Man I REALLY want to bang that chick I was just in a lesson with, you know what I mean?!". My students love me too... well, the most vocal ones seem to anyways. I love them too to be honest. They are all so cute and happy, but it does remind me of how much I want kids. Soon maybe...
I have plans to go visit Korea in December as a Christmas gift to myself. A full week of good food and fun. Plus I get to visit friends there! Yes, everything is turning up roses now, thank you for going out of business NOVA!
And speaking of that, NOVA was the last in my long line of Jobs that didn't pay me. I have done a LOT of work for companies that either didn't pay me ever or paid me way less than I should have gotten for the work completed. Only a couple of jobs have ever paid me well, and their reward? Well, lets just say that I've worked for Dominics (Chicago area grocer, now out of business), FunCoLand (Now out of business) and Cineplex Odeon (bought out by Sony). I'm not the kiss of death for businesses, but if they don't treat me right they tend not to last long... heh heh heh.
So yea, I'll start updating again. Sorry for the delay!
-Maru!
Job? Check.
Apartment? Check.
Insurance? Check.
Internet? Stolen for now, but check.
Seems like I have everything basically in order. Time to update a bit!
NOVA is no more. I quit the moment I heard about employees not getting paid. Realistically NOVA still owes me a sum of around 30,000 yen, but I don't expect to ever see that money. Doesn't matter tho, I'm doing just fine.
I have a new job through a company called W5 Staff Services. They are an intermediary who hire people for various public and private sector positions. Although I report to W5 for my pay and such my real employer is the Higashi Osaka Board of Education. I work at three schools overall, a Junior High School on three days a week and two elementary schools once a week each. I am still teaching English but I have an actual classroom, actual students and almost double the pay. Can't really complain to be truthful.
A word about Eikaiwa (NOVA especially but all Eikaiwa fall under this category at least a little):
The basic concept of an Eikaiwa is a great one. A place where you can study a language under the tutalige of a native speaker. Realistically, the books do most of the teaching and the teachers are just there for help with grammar and pronunciation, but I really think the schools help build confidence and are a great place to make friends and test out your language skills.
That said, far too many of the teachers don't care or make very VERY poor instructors. Most are fresh out of collage and just want to have sex with foreigners, which is sad because most of the students I met weren't interested in going out with a NOVA teacher, yet were subtly hit on by many. With the language barrier solidly in place for most this caused many to become embarrassed; a fact a few students relayed to me in Japanese after lessons. While the idea of the Eikaiwa is a great one, the execution is a bit off.
My roommates are another story. I wrote before that I was lucky to have them... That isn't a lie as I really liked the one from New England. He was a stand up guy and easy to get along with. The one from Canada, however, I am very glad to be rid of.
I am of the opinion that Marijuana is not an addictive substance, but this guy did his damndest to prove me wrong. If he wasn't talking about sex (and how much he wanted to have sex with students, staff and pretty much anything with a xx chromosome) he was going on and on about how much he wanted... no, NEEDED to get high. He drank like a fish, claimed that everyone at his NOVA branch absolutely adored him and how he was going to go home in six months or so. He would always try to convince me to go Karaoke with him and the others, a pastime I am not fond of. One day he was playing a song on his iPod that I happened to like. I started singing along to it, and just as I was about to say "hey, maybe I WILL go to Karaoke with you..." he says "Stop fucking singing or I'm changing the song." I obliged and gave him a smile.
The last thing I said to him before he left the NOVA apartment was "try not to get too tired". I wanted to say something nice, but not insincere. I couldn't care less about his luck or health, but he probably should try not to get too tired, so I went with that.
As for my other roommate I wish him all the luck in the world. He is a great guy and I wish I could have hung out with him some more.
So now I have my own, private apartment. I work with Japanese people all day so my Japanese language skills have been improving exponentially, even my written! My workmates are all dedicated to teaching, so I don't hear stuff like "It's so much more fun to go to work drunk!" or "Man I REALLY want to bang that chick I was just in a lesson with, you know what I mean?!". My students love me too... well, the most vocal ones seem to anyways. I love them too to be honest. They are all so cute and happy, but it does remind me of how much I want kids. Soon maybe...
I have plans to go visit Korea in December as a Christmas gift to myself. A full week of good food and fun. Plus I get to visit friends there! Yes, everything is turning up roses now, thank you for going out of business NOVA!
And speaking of that, NOVA was the last in my long line of Jobs that didn't pay me. I have done a LOT of work for companies that either didn't pay me ever or paid me way less than I should have gotten for the work completed. Only a couple of jobs have ever paid me well, and their reward? Well, lets just say that I've worked for Dominics (Chicago area grocer, now out of business), FunCoLand (Now out of business) and Cineplex Odeon (bought out by Sony). I'm not the kiss of death for businesses, but if they don't treat me right they tend not to last long... heh heh heh.
So yea, I'll start updating again. Sorry for the delay!
-Maru!
Something good maybe?
Some people still haven't been paid. Their pay is a week late. I truly doubt that NOVA will be able to pay ME in three weeks when my paycheck is due. I'm jumping ship. Tomorrow I am handing in my resignation paperwork and I might not even go to work after this coming Tuesday. I can't really see the point when my chances of getting paid are slim to none.
Ah, but there is always a ray of sunshine. I do, after all, have a valid work visa and the will to teach! I have an interview (already) on Saturday in Osaka and it looks pretty good. If successful I will be working exactly where I want... in the public school system. I would basically get the chance to do JET without actually doing JET. Honestly this is what I wanted to do in the first place (as anyone who has been reading this blog knows), so maybe this is just fate intervening. I'm going to have to call in sick, but oh well. It's not like I'm getting paid anyways...
Please cross your fingers for me! If I get this one all my really big problems are solved. If I don't... well, I have more options. But this one is great because it's both something I wanted to do anyways and it will come soon enough that I won't have to worry for too long.
I just feel like I entered someone else's revolution involuntarily. I will support those who are being abused, but like any good American I will do it from the comfort of my living room in my new apartment.
Wish me luck!
-Maru!
Ah, but there is always a ray of sunshine. I do, after all, have a valid work visa and the will to teach! I have an interview (already) on Saturday in Osaka and it looks pretty good. If successful I will be working exactly where I want... in the public school system. I would basically get the chance to do JET without actually doing JET. Honestly this is what I wanted to do in the first place (as anyone who has been reading this blog knows), so maybe this is just fate intervening. I'm going to have to call in sick, but oh well. It's not like I'm getting paid anyways...
Please cross your fingers for me! If I get this one all my really big problems are solved. If I don't... well, I have more options. But this one is great because it's both something I wanted to do anyways and it will come soon enough that I won't have to worry for too long.
I just feel like I entered someone else's revolution involuntarily. I will support those who are being abused, but like any good American I will do it from the comfort of my living room in my new apartment.
Wish me luck!
-Maru!
Okay, I kind of lied...
Not everything is fine in NOVA land. I do like my job... the staff, teachers and students are all great! I actually like going to work and doing my job. I feel like for the first time ever I am being a responsible adult. But of course that can't last. I'm not supposed to have a full time job! That's silly!
The trouble actually started last month when every NOVA teacher was paid five hours late. That might not seem like a lot, but it's actually a pretty big deal, especially for a Japanese company. Now this month they were five DAYS late with their payments, and some people still haven't been paid. Many teachers have talked about going to work in street clothes or not teaching lessons (just talking with students... in Japanese if they can) as a form of protest to this kind of treatment. Others, including my roommates, are already making plans to get new jobs, go home or just use the money they have to trek across Japan. Even if NOVA pulls out of the current nose dive the current teachers don't like the prospect of working for a company that did this kind of thing to them. After all, it shows how they really treat their employees and deal with crisis.
But that's not the worst of it. I was tapped by a teacher who has been here for a while to go to our apartments office and translate. She told me to ask when the last time NOVA paid the apartments rent was. A flurry of phone calls went out and the answer came, "Not in two months". I was then assured that a payment was received yesterday for one months deposit. My Japanese isn't the greatest so I'm not sure if he meant a full months rent was paid or just the deposit was made. Either way it only covered one month so we are behind on our rent through no fault of our own.
This might be a good thing though. My fiance is coming in about one week and she will start attending school in Kyoto. Hopefully we can just get an apartment together and I can get a job with AEON or some public or private schools, or maybe I can just tutor and take some classes. I need to work so I can start paying off student loans, but going to class again would be a very good thing. My Japanese has improved and my self study has become more frequent. If I don't have to speak English full time anymore I can probably get fluent pretty quickly. That would be good.
Worse case scenario would be that my fiance does not come for some reason, NOVA fails completely and I go home. It's not the most ideal situation but it would be workable. Best case is that I move into an apartment with my fiance, get a part time job tutoring and continue my study until my visa expires. We'll have to see. In about three weeks I will truly know the score and might be much happier or very worried. I'll try to keep updating whenever possible. wish me luck!
-Maru!
The trouble actually started last month when every NOVA teacher was paid five hours late. That might not seem like a lot, but it's actually a pretty big deal, especially for a Japanese company. Now this month they were five DAYS late with their payments, and some people still haven't been paid. Many teachers have talked about going to work in street clothes or not teaching lessons (just talking with students... in Japanese if they can) as a form of protest to this kind of treatment. Others, including my roommates, are already making plans to get new jobs, go home or just use the money they have to trek across Japan. Even if NOVA pulls out of the current nose dive the current teachers don't like the prospect of working for a company that did this kind of thing to them. After all, it shows how they really treat their employees and deal with crisis.
But that's not the worst of it. I was tapped by a teacher who has been here for a while to go to our apartments office and translate. She told me to ask when the last time NOVA paid the apartments rent was. A flurry of phone calls went out and the answer came, "Not in two months". I was then assured that a payment was received yesterday for one months deposit. My Japanese isn't the greatest so I'm not sure if he meant a full months rent was paid or just the deposit was made. Either way it only covered one month so we are behind on our rent through no fault of our own.
This might be a good thing though. My fiance is coming in about one week and she will start attending school in Kyoto. Hopefully we can just get an apartment together and I can get a job with AEON or some public or private schools, or maybe I can just tutor and take some classes. I need to work so I can start paying off student loans, but going to class again would be a very good thing. My Japanese has improved and my self study has become more frequent. If I don't have to speak English full time anymore I can probably get fluent pretty quickly. That would be good.
Worse case scenario would be that my fiance does not come for some reason, NOVA fails completely and I go home. It's not the most ideal situation but it would be workable. Best case is that I move into an apartment with my fiance, get a part time job tutoring and continue my study until my visa expires. We'll have to see. In about three weeks I will truly know the score and might be much happier or very worried. I'll try to keep updating whenever possible. wish me luck!
-Maru!
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