Anyone who has been following the death throes of the pink bunny surely know by now that Nova has gone belly up, but I think I will be ahead of everyone else with this news report:
For those who those of you in the “never heard of the Titanic until it sunk” situation with Nova, it is the largest and most marketing friendly of language school chains in Japan- the MacDonalds of Japanese language schools. To see what happened to the MacDonalds of Spanish language schools and the whole industry there, click here. For those of you too lazy to sign onto Google news alerts for yourself but still want the latest on Nova, see below: (more…)
The Australian press continue to give more coverage to the collapsing Nova story than even newspapers in Japan. I confidently predict that the next publication to cover the story will be the London Evening Standard, worried that the oversupply of Aussies and Kiwis working in London bars will become intolerable once more unskilled younguns from Down Under come flooding out of Japan with nowhere else to go. (more…)
About the only good news in the fading away of Nova (the Macdonalds of English conversation Eikaiwa schools in Japan) is that the Japanese press seem to be working themselves up to a wolf-like group decision that Mr Monkeybridge (Sahashi-san), the CEO, is wounded enough that they can afford to tear into him, and just saying nothing may no longer be enough to keep himself out of the papers, even when there are seemingly more important “still no progress in the North Korean hostage thing” stories to keep the punters distracted.
Of course there’s nothing good about mob justice, unless of course it is picking on someone who deserves it and it’s the only justice going… And so to today’s news: (more…)
As if in a deliberate attempt to prove the straight talking Aussie stereotype, Australian Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer has decided he knows what we were all wondering about, that Nova is about to go down the toilet. Well, having foreign politicians making comments like that certainly isn’t going to help… Tomorrow we can expect the new Japanese PM, whose name I can’t be bothered learning because he won’t be around for much longer than Nova, to state that although there isn’t any BSE in Aussie beef he confidently expects some to be discovered soon.
Anyhoo, he may be right, Australian or not, because pay is delayed again this month:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=56898
And
More details of same on Let’s Japan
Mr Monkeybridge of Nova (by far the largest chain of English Eikaiwa schools in Japan) really should have had a stall in a South London market instead of a chain of language schools, because he is a real Japanese Del Boy. The latest wheelin’ and dealin’, duckin’ and divin’ involves some financial shenanigans that I don’t understand and it is probably best not to think about too much as long as it puts the pot noodles on the table for Nova staff for another month or two… Full details in the Japan Times
To prove that I am capable of not only the idle speculation of the average post on this blog (but then, isn’t that what a blog is for?) but also of getting down and dirty in the trenches of TEFL, I’ve been given my TEFL Press Card, a rusty old Remington typewriter and a pack of filterless French cigarettes and become what can almost be described as a journalist. Yes, those of you standing around outside the kiosks and corner shops of the world waiting for the latest edition of the EL Gazette hot off the press will have noticed not one, but two articles by Alex Case, direct from war torn Tokyo.
First of all, I should point out that a supernova sounds like a good thing (Oasis song and all), but actually it is a giant explosion that swallows up a solar system, so not really something a language school should want to be associated with…
Anyhows, although there isn’t much new news about the imminent explosion in the super-sized chain of Japanese Eikaiwa English conversation schools (crossing my fingers that any big developments come after my EL Gazette story comes out and so it doesn’t seem totally outdated), the rest of the world is slowly catching on to the story.
The latest rumour has it that there is a meeting of all the bigwigs this morning. Until that news comes out (and it may take a while as Nova have yet to make a single official press statement about anything), here are the latest news sources and some of the more interesting older ones:
A very detailed article from the Japan Times, with predictions from a business journalist
The New Zealand and Canadian press catch up with the original story of unpaid wages
Shortly after the Japanese press had decided to cover the story:
www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070922TDY02008.html
…but which, strangely, had been covered in the Australian newspaper “the Age” first:
Or not so strangely if you know how the Japanese press will only swarm all over a story once someone else has taken the risk of covering it first…
Which is why this savaging of the Nova business plan from a Japanese business magazine is such a shocker (English translation from Let’s Japan, the main Nova breakdown news source in English- good job!)
NOVA is the biggest chain of English teaching school in Japan, or at least it still is as of today. All the data and rumourss seem to be suggesting, though, that they could well shortly be living up to the Spanish translation of their name- “no go”. There is rumoured to be a big meeting on Tues to decide their fate, so I have my suspicions they won’t get round the answering the list of allegations I have just sent them for confirmtion or denial:
1. Substantial branch closures are planned (approx 200 of the present 900 branches)
2. Up to 3000 of the 7000 teachers have been paid late this month
3. Native speaker management members (school managers etc) will be paid even later
4. Japanese members of staff were paid late in August
5. Approx 50 Nova teachers protested in central Osaka over said late payment of wages
6. Nova has not being paying the rents of some teacher accommodation to the landlords of those properties
7. Some suppliers of stationary etc. to Nova are no longer supplying Nova due to bills not being paid
8. There have been recent attempts at finding a business partner for Nova, but these have not been agreed.
9. Some recently recruited teachers have been phoned shortly before leaving for Japan with the choice of postponing or cancelling their arrival
10. The Nova estimate for student numbers in September is 19.2% less than those of a year earlier
Most have been in the press already one place or another, some others are just gossip. The thing they all have in common is that they don’t look good…
Other news stories, gossip, speculation or strange dreams about pink bunnies? Please share them here: