The Nova Brouhaha

For those who read what I write and don't know what "Nova" is, it's a big chain of "fast food" English language schools. They are cheap, offer a set course of content (mainly based on a single series of textbooks but with some variation) and have a lot of branches. They are famous, perhaps unfairly, for being one of the worst places in Japan to work at.

The truth is that they are probably no longer the worst place to work at but the working conditions at the schools are generally quite hard compared to some other places. That is, teachers put in a relatively long, intense day. There is also an elaborate series of financial penalties for small infractions such as being late, calling in sick, or taking days off without sufficient notice. In the past, Nova was accused of cheating people out of salary they were due and denying them legal minimum vacation time but that seems to have stopped due to the creation of a Nova teacher's union.

I worked at Nova for 2 years when I first arrived in Japan and found that conditions varied from branch to branch. Smaller, less busy branches were not so bad to work at and bigger ones were madhouses where teachers were treated like a necessary evil as staff struggled to handle the overwhelming task of managing a stampede of students and fatigued teachers. The Japanese staff who worked at each branch were a big component in how bad or how good the job could be. If you were lucky, you were with a relaxed manager who cut you slack so you could enjoy down-time when you had it. If you were unlucky and worked for a hard ass, you'd be tossed into a conversation lounge during any free moment even if you weren't needed there.

Through the years, a lot of Nova refugees came to work during my former company's busy season (from October to March each year, we would hire 1-5 extra foreign staff members) so I got updates from people who worked there as the years went by. In fact, I was eventually replaced by a Nova teacher so my information is subjective but current.

Anyway, as of late, there has been a lot of news about 7 Nova teachers who have been accused of having a small amount of marijuana and cocaine. The quantity found would lead one to believe this was a group of people prepping for a party rather than a bunch of drug dealers. The amount doesn't matter much to the Japanese though because they are much stricter about drugs than some other countries. This is something that most people ought to know given that Paul McCartney rather famously got booted from Japan in 1980 for carrying a small amount of pot into the country.

I asked one of my students last night about how this news comes across to her and she told me a few things I hadn't learned from reading various news sources. For one thing, she said that Nova had denied (at least to a news sources she accessed) that it had any relationship with the arrested people. That is, it implied that they don't work for Nova. Since there was another incident in the past in which teachers were arrested, I think Nova is probably concerned that this is going to be bad public relations for them. They likely don't want to be seen as a school which employs a bunch of druggies.

I also asked my student about her impressions after the news and two points in particular were of interest to me. First of all, I wanted to know if she thought less of Nova as a language school after this and she said that she did not but felt they were careless about the type of people they hired. Second, I wanted to know if she felt this indicated that all foreigners were more likely to do drugs. She said her impression of foreigners wasn't changed by this at all and said without any prodding on my part that Japanese people use drugs as well.

Part of the reason I asked the latter question is that a common reaction among the foreign community in Japan (as seen by comments about this story on news sites and blogs) is that this news makes life harder for all foreigners in Japan as it will encourage the Japanese who stereotype us as criminals or drug users to maintain their prejudicial views. I think those who want to believe all foreigners are X, Y, or Z are going to do so regardless of how many people actually commit a crime or how many people are upstanding citizens who work hard and obey the laws.

The Guest is God

A student, who I've mentioned before, works at a hotel giving information in front of the elevator, at an information kiosk, and in cloak rooms. She told me that the cloak room is one of the hardest areas to work at because it's so busy that the staff are close to a state of pure panic when their largest banquet hall (which hosts up to 1000 people) is occupied. This particular hall has its own cloak room and it's a madhouse trying to take bags and coats and hand out numbers.

She told me that a guest who is a semi-high profile person in the Japanese parliament gave her his coat and she asked if it as the only item that he wanted to check. He said that it was and went on his way. When this gentleman returned, he got his coat and asked, "and my muffler?" She told him politely that there was no muffler and a fellow coworker backed her up as she'd witnessed the transaction. Nonetheless, she, her coworker, and her supervisor apologized profusely for a mistake they did not make. Then, they apologized some more.

I asked this student why she and other staff were apologizing for something they didn't do and she said, "because the guest is God." She said she figured this gentleman had left his muffler behind somewhere on his way to the hotel and absently thought he'd checked it when he hadn't.

In a related story, she told me a coworker made a more serious error which further illustrated the stellar treatment guests may receive. She said this person misfiled a guest's coat and gave him the wrong one in return. When the guest said the coat was not his and they couldn't turn up the correct one, they offered to pay for his coat. Her boss said that, even if a guest claims that a coat costs 2,000,000 yen (about $20,000), they will have to pay for the loss.

I asked her what happened to the original coat and she said that another guest was probably given the more expensive coat mistakenly but just walked away with it. The only coat they had left at the end of the night was a cheap, grey one which belonged to the party who was given the expensive one. Apparently, the gods can be petty thieves.

Technology as a Touchstone

Back when I was working at Nova conversation school, I made friends with a British woman whose grandmother was in her early 90's and was in failing health. I expressed my sympathy and she said that her grandmother was "ready" to die because she'd seen so much of the world change in her life. She mentioned that things like travel by plane, which were common by the time of her death, were not the case when she was a child. Her main point was that she'd seen a lot and was okay with the idea that she was going to die.

At the time that my friend told me that, I was 24 and couldn't relate entirely to what she was saying. Now, I'm quite a bit older and am beginning to see and feel a bit of what her grandmother must have felt. In my post about how things have changed since I arrived in Japan, I cover some of these things but I recently had a lesson with a student that reinforced this feeling.

My student works in the accounting section of a building materials company and she was trying to explain a commonly-used method of payment in Japan which is the equivalent of a regulated, dated "I.O.U.". She said that it's common for companies to make agreements which state that, at some point in the future, they will pay the balance of their debt in full. If they fail to pay at that point, there can be serious legal consequences which can result in bankrupcy.

Anyway, when I was trying to understand what she was talking about, I mentioned several payment methods that are possible in the United States. One of the methods I mentioned was a money order. She had no idea what a money order was and couldn't conceptualize under what circumstances one might use one. She's not the first person to not know what this method of payment was. A young friend of mine (approaching his mid 20's) in the U.S. also had never heard of one when I mentioned he could use one to pay for something.

Money orders were a common means of guaranteed payment when I was growing up and now they are going to become as antiquated as green stamps. I'm guessing payment by personal check is not far behind money orders in this regard.

Somehow, the fact that young people don't know what a money order is feels different than old technology which they may not be familiar with. I guess that part of the reason for that is that format changes or technological improvements are faster and more common but things like methods of payment tend to linger for a much longer time. I guess my friend's grandmother probably felt much the same about modes of transportation.

Dubious Accounting

I haven't been posting as much lately because I'm starting to feel a bit burnt out. I'm not burnt out on posting, mind you, but a little burnt out on dealing with heaping piles of tasks that need to be done. Posting when I'm in this state is rather difficult because I don't have much energy to accomplish more than what I'm already doing.

Last week, I did a fair bit of freelance work on top of my private teaching load (which is up to full capacity again after the holiday lull) and my husband has been sick all week. He's been a trooper and worked anyway but it's really left him worn out and prolonged his cold. For those who don't teach, teaching is one of the hardest jobs to do when you have a cold because it strains your throat constantly and requires you to project yourself at least somewhat energetically all the time. It also makes all the disgusting little maintenance things (blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing, etc.) you have to do to alleviate your discomfort much more difficult to do because you've got an audience. What's worse, you've got an audience which is part of a culture that doesn't condone nose-blowing as a socially acceptable behavior.

Since my husband has been working 9-hour days while sick, he's not been able to help out much and requires more care than usual. Some people might wonder why he doesn't just call in sick. There are a couple of reasons for that but one of them is that he doesn't get paid if he doesn't work. For teachers in Japan, I don't believe there is any such thing as a "sick day" though I guess you can take one of your 10 legally-mandated vacation days off as a sick day if you haven't already taken them as vacation days.

In my husband's case, he has no vacation days left but also his paid time off is calculated in a dubious fashion so he gets paid less for taking a day off than he would if he worked that day. This is something that my company started doing the last year of my employment but I think is really sneaky and unethical. My husband's salary is variable based on the number of hours he puts in each month. He does not work for a set salary. If he takes a day off, his school divides the previous month's salary by the number of days in the month and pays him 1/30 or 1/31 of the previous month's salary.

Of course, no one works 30 or 31 days a month so this is a lower wage than one actually makes on a daily basis. The fair thing to do is divide the previous month's salary by the number of working days in the month (generally 21-23). This accounting technique allows his company to pay him about $50 less per day taken off.

When my former company instituted this practice after years of calculating it fairly, they just said that's the way they do it as if that was an explanation for an accounting technique which is clearly designed to screw the employee over. I don't think this is a Japanese practice though. In fact, I'm nearly certain other companies in the U.S. do it as well. Companies do this petty little accounting trick to cheat employees out of their fair wages and then wonder why they, in turn, do petty little things like steal office supplies, milk breaks for a few extra minutes or slack on the job when the boss isn't around. You reap what you sow.

Oat Pancakes

Though my husband has gone back to low-carb after some holiday indulgence, he does have small quantities of foods which are high in carbohydrates (but with good carbs) before he goes swimming in the morning. Doing this allows him to exercise better because it puts some glycogen in his muscles. People who do extreme low carb often find exercising more difficult because there's no sugar in their muscles for ready use.

These pancakes are a long-time favorite of his. They're relatively thin but have a good texture and taste because of the oatmeal. My husband usually has 2-3 with DaVinci sugar-free caramel syrup (which we get from the FBC) and plenty of butter.

The recipe makes 9 small pancakes.

Oat Pancakes recipe:

• 1/2 cup oatmeal (rolled oats)
  
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 packets of Splenda (or 2 tsp. brown sugar)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tbls. canola oil
• dash of vanilla essence

In a large bowl, soak the oats, salt and milk for 10 minutes to soften the oats. Add the egg, oil, vanilla and Splenda and mix very well with a fork, spoon or whisk (though do not whisk vigorously enough to add a lot of air). Stir in the flour until thoroughly mixed and allow the batter to sit for a few minutes to settle.

Heat a large skillet or griddle and either lightly-grease it with butter or spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Cook over medium high heat until bubbles start to appear on the top and the edges start to look dry. Flip and cook until done. These are thin pancakes and don't take too terribly long to cook.