Ex-Nova teachers finding work at onsens

When shady business practices put the language school chain Nova out of business last October, the collateral damage was immense. Some 4,000 foreign teachers found themselves unemployed and stranded in Japan, many of them too broke to pay the rent and unable, for the same reason, to fly back home.

The press coverage their plight attracted soon faded, leaving us to presume, or at least hope, that those who failed to secure other employment in Japan made it home somehow. Nikkan Gendai (Sept 9) returns to the issue a year later, discovering a handful of ex-Nova teachers getting work from hot spring hotels in Atami and other resorts. They are employed not directly by the hotels but by a building maintenance firm, and the service they offer is on-line translating for tourists in difficulty who need an interpreter on the double.

Mr Haruta, president of Sakura Building Services Co, explains how it came about: “When Nova collapsed, one of their teachers, a Jamaican, approached me, saying he wanted to work as a freelance interpreter. At that time we were running a temp worker dispatch business along with our building maintenance operation. Nova teachers were coming to us, saying, ‘The company isn’t paying us, we don’t know how we’re going to live.’ So we made our extra desks available and put some of them to work.”

Just around that time, a Sakura-owned hotel in Atami, the famous resort south of Tokyo on the Izu Peninsula, found itself in an awkward predicament. A party of Chinese tourists had arrived but, knowing no Japanese or English, could not check in. Did Haruta happen to have a Chinese teacher on hand who could help out via email? As a matter of fact, he did. The episode gave birth to Sakura’s “on-line interpreting system.”

It’s just the thing for hot spring hotels that get a steady flow of foreign visitors. “The hotel doesn’t need staff interpreters,” says Haruta. “All they need is access to an interpreter when the need arises, and all that’s needed for that is a computer.”

Sakura’s little corps of interpreters, meanwhile, earn anywhere from 250,000 yen to 450,000 yen a month, Nikkan Gendai says—“rather better than the treatment they got at Nova. Good for them!”

Latest 15 of 25 Total Comments Show All

helloklitty at 10:05 PM JST - 15th September

Feel-good story of the year.

as in, "sitting in the onsen feels good" ? Ha! Ha!

Where do I apply?
cracaphat at 11:24 PM JST - 15th September

I'm sure this story has been spiced up for gullible consumption.
beavis at 11:41 AM JST - 16th September

Ex-Nova teachers finding work at onsens

The headline alone almost makes it sound glamorous and enviable. I thought the article would say they were washing bathtubs or something.
memyselfI at 11:43 AM JST - 16th September

Exciting news story
rjd_jr at 09:16 AM JST - 17th September

Sad, it's no fun to lose a job no matter the industry. Great for these people for helping out these foreigners and others who needed a job.
Kobat at 11:51 AM JST - 18th September

What were translators and interpreters doing working at "NOVA" in the first place?
Noripinhead at 03:15 PM JST - 18th September

Good news about finding work at onsens. But in some sense these former NOVA teachers are still in "hot water."
Nessie at 04:36 PM JST - 18th September

What were translators and interpreters doing working at "NOVA" in the first place?

Put the quotation marks around "translators and interpreters" instead of around "NOVA" and you have your answer.
neverknow2 at 07:38 AM JST - 20th September

People who 'worked' at NOVA didnt do a whole lot of 'work' in the first place. About time they had a real job.
Apsara at 08:24 AM JST - 20th September

I worked at Nova about 10 years ago- it may not have been real teaching, but it was bloody hard labour. Believe me, Nova teachers did a whole lot of work. I used to come home so tired I couldn't hold a proper conversation anymore. It was not a real job maybe, but it was definitely real work.
seesaw at 06:27 PM JST - 5th October

he he he....this what happened when people are snobbish when times were good for them......when I wanted to make friends and went to bars...those NOVA teachers wont even want to say hello to me....i am not a teacher, let alone not 'White' so they thogt my English is imperfect ...and simply ignored me...

now five years later...I still have a career and good salary and they only have a 'lost NOVA World'....he he he......
neverknow2 at 10:30 AM JST - 10th October

Seesaw- Its OK, these NOVA teachers will be laid off soon. Why? Because onsens dont want foreigners to visit. Only Japanese. So they novelty will wear off soon. Maybe you can tell us why Japanese wont say hello to foreigners in the street or on the train? Yet they continue to stare at me everyday?
cleo at 10:36 AM JST - 10th October

Maybe you can tell us why Japanese wont say hello to foreigners in the street or on the train?

You think it's normal to go around greeting perfect strangers in the street or on the train?

Yet they continue to stare at me everyday?

Maybe they think you're strange for greeting perfect strangers in the street or on the train?
josebove at 09:54 PM JST - 10th October

Cleo: LOL!!
seesaw at 10:15 PM JST - 10th October

neverknow2: they stare @yo coz yo are a gaijin..they stare at me too....b, i take it that it's becoz i'm pretty...:) Greeting strangers (Japanese) is not normal thing to do here esp in Tokyo...b, yo cld do it in inaka areas...they'll respond...believe me..