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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!”
© Japan Today
25 Comments
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pathat
Sounds to me like a "handful" of ex-Nova drones are working for another shady company.
Yeah, so what else are they doing to "earn" their money?
A Jamaican ex-Nova teacher helped get things up and running-or so it seems-and the one so-called relevant example of services provided was a Chinese staff member providing language services to Chinese tourists.
Another informative article-courtesy of Kuchikomi.
borscht
If the Japanese staff at the onsen couldn't explain the 'complicated' check-in procedures to a group of Chinese (who can read Japanese kanji quite easily), then they didn't need a Chinese interpreter. They needed people-skills instruction.
pathat, They probably do translation work (manuals and what not) at their desks when not called upon to help people use a bath properly.
cleo
And more sensible check-in procedures.
pathat
borscht: I am sure they have tons of translation work just sitting around for the employees to dig into every day. Seeing as how they work for a "building services" company, I would say the likelihood that the foreigners formerly known as Nova teachers are doing some "building services" on a regular basis is pretty good.
Since this company takes on ex-Nova people, are they also planning to employ some Lehman Brothers refugees from next month?
Good luck, Sakura Building Services!
chibaman
So really the ex-Nova teachers aren't working at onsens at all (thanks for another misleading headline) but rather working from a Sakura office, if not from the multi-media centre they never left.
Read: most of them make the minimum 250. One guy makes 450.
cow76
Agree, Chibaman. Almost all of them will be on 250 000, which was the minimum starting salary at Nova if I remember correctly.
lipscombe
if they are happy, good luck to them
chibaman
What a feel-good story about a handful saved from a group of some 4000 out of work. You're my hero, Sakura.
helloklitty
sounds like they'd have a light schedule especially compared to what they were doing at nova
BurakuminDes
Feel-good story of the year.
helloklitty
as in, "sitting in the onsen feels good" ? Ha! Ha!
Where do I apply?
beavis
The headline alone almost makes it sound glamorous and enviable. I thought the article would say they were washing bathtubs or something.
memyselfI
Exciting news story
rjd_jr
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
What were translators and interpreters doing working at "NOVA" in the first place?
Noripinhead
Good news about finding work at onsens. But in some sense these former NOVA teachers are still in "hot water."
Nessie
Put the quotation marks around "translators and interpreters" instead of around "NOVA" and you have your answer.
neverknow2
People who 'worked' at NOVA didnt do a whole lot of 'work' in the first place. About time they had a real job.
Apsara
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
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
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
You think it's normal to go around greeting perfect strangers in the street or on the train?
Maybe they think you're strange for greeting perfect strangers in the street or on the train?
josebove
Cleo: LOL!!
seesaw
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..