Viewing items with Tag: "english"

According to one troubled Kyoto employee, staff haven't been paid for this month. Could be an indication that they are indeed going into liquidation soon. Word from management has claimed this months wages are delayed until the 19th at the earliest, but who knows? Is there a punchline to this joke? Doubt it.

Please take a moment to appreciate my artists impression of what will happen to the Nova bunny. Do you know how hard it is to draw blood trails on a trackpad? <--------------this hard--------->

[source: japanprobe]

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is set to order Nova Corp., Japan’s largest English-language school operator, to suspend part of its business for six months for having violated the law governing the industry, ministry sources said Wednesday.

Specifically, they have been screwing their customers who sign up for long contracts by cheating them out of the 8 day cooling off period, as well as penalizing students who cancel mid-contract by calculating their already attended lessons at a higher point rate.

Nova group is therefore banned from creating 6 month or longer contracts with new students, which is where their primary income is. Even if this ban is incurred for just 30 days, with their mounting debts and plummeting public image, they are pretty much officially screwed. Employees of Nova should start looking for another job now, seriously people.

I also found this pretty picture of Nova's stock price! Isn't it beautiful?? (and udated live!)

This one's been around, but worth revisiting. Having been an English teacher in Japan, it's good to remember that high school kids everywhere write goofy-ass stuff:


6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.



See the full list at The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers).

A little dated, but funny all the same. The importance of English in every day life:

The new education minister of Japan, Bummei Ibuki, today stated that he doesn't believe English to be a neccessary part of Elementary school education.

"I do not see the necessity at all. There is no use studying English unless children speak beautiful Japanese. Those who want to study English from elementary level can do so individually. I believe (elementary) schools only have to make children develop an interest in foreign countries."

Elementary level English education is now being discussed by the Central Education Council. If they decide to take English off the curriculum, it could have a major effect on jobs for foreign English teachers in Japan.