The Unbiased Truth About Nova

[Iron Chef]

It's amusing to read some of these replies... I take myself and my craft seriously. I've been self-employed and owner/operator of my own language school for a couple years now. And I am very successful at it. In fact, I have turned away students and new contracts now for the last six months simply because there aren't enough hours in the day for me anymore.

Anybody can call themselves an "English teacher" but the ones who willingly dedicate their time and patience to commit themselves to helping a student progress are few and far between. NOVA dropped the ball on that one. Like most of the major eikawa, it was all about the signups. Getting them into the system was/is their only real priority. Student care and aggressively helping students to achieve the goals they set out for themselves fell along the wayside.

Oh well, more business for me I suppose should I choose to take it up lol. If I told you the number of current eikawa branch school managers and teachers I teach atm (NOVA, AEON, GEOS, ECC, etc.) as my own students you'd all be surprised... Guess it just shows that even the company employees don't have faith in their own system anymore.

Expect to see more entrepreneurs like myself stepping up to fill in the void. I don't do contracts with students, I let them pay me monthly on the same day every month or they can opt for a pay-as-you-go rate per lesson/class. There are no extra fees or additional charges tacked on. EVER. There is no penalty for makeups or having to cancel a class (with reasonable notice). And there are no stipulations or penalties about deciding to leave should the student feel dissatisfied with their progress/instruction for whatever reason. In other words, I do everything NOVA doesn't.

[senseiman]

It's amusing to read some of these replies... I take myself and my craft seriously. I've been self-employed and owner/operator of my own language school for a couple years now. And I am very successful at it. In fact, I have turned away students and new contracts now for the last six months simply because there aren't enough hours in the day for me anymore.
Anybody can call themselves an "English teacher" but the ones who willingly dedicate their time and patience to commit themselves to helping a student progress are few and far between. NOVA dropped the ball on that one. Like most of the major eikawa, it was all about the signups. Getting them into the system was/is their only real priority. Student care and aggressively helping students to achieve the goals they set out for themselves fell along the wayside.
Oh well, more business for me I suppose should I choose to take it up lol. If I told you the number of current eikawa branch school managers and teachers I teach atm (NOVA, AEON, GEOS, ECC, etc.) as my own students you'd all be surprised... Guess it just shows that even the company employees don't have faith in their own system anymore.
Expect to see more entrepreneurs like myself stepping up to fill in the void. I don't do contracts with students, I let them pay me monthly on the same day every month or they can opt for a pay-as-you-go rate per lesson/class. There are no extra fees or additional charges tacked on. EVER. There is no penalty for makeups or having to cancel a class (with reasonable notice). And there are no stipulations or penalties about deciding to leave should the student feel dissatisfied with their progress/instruction for whatever reason. In other words, I do everything NOVA doesn't.

That is awesome. I spent a couple of years doing pretty much the exact same thing, ie teaching students on my own out of my apartment. I don't know if I would call it a "school", though we did have an room set up as a class. Like you I only charged students monthly and never had any formal contracts. It worked out great for me too, it was the best time I had in Japan.

You seem to view the (potential) collapse of NOVA as a good thing. I don't think it is a good thing for the private operator though. I always thought it was useful to have the big schools around because you could easily undercut their prices (which are outrageous) while offering even better service. They serve a pretty useful function in creating demand for English lessons (through their marketing, etc) and in soaking up teachers (I note that some object to the use of that word to describe NOVA employees but I find that attitude a bit condescending).

If NOVA goes under the market will be flooded by teachers. This will probably have a lot of consequences for the small operator, who may face more competition from ex-NOVA teachers. Unlike competing with NOVA itself, which charges ludicrous rates, these teachers will offer private lessons at a reasonable rate.

Of course, the other effect of a NOVA collapse will be a bunch of students without a school. The problem though is that a lot of those students probably won't just go to another English school, but will just quit altogether. A lot of them were probably just brought into English lessons by the NOVA marketing machine and, without that, they'll probably loose their interest.

So the bottom line will be less demand for English lessons with more English teachers offering lessons for lower prices. Thats a tough market.