R.I.P. Nova:

I had a few emails this week about my opinion on the Nova issue here in Japan. I worked for Nova many years ago in Otaru when I was about 22 and 23. I was not a full time employee. Actually, I was working in another private English school at the time when I was suddenly contacted by Nova to help them out. They had only 1 forienger in their school at that time and that person was quitting. So they needed a “gaijin” to be in their school until someone else was hired on. So I decided to work there as well. I already knew some of the management there.

At that time Nova was pretty much the king of English conversation schools in Japan. I found Nova to have a lot of money and a lot of resources. This was much different than teaching at a smaller private school. But my experience there wasn`t good or bad. I guess just typical. The school pretty much treated its teachers like a piece of meat. It was impossible to take a day off. The rules were very strict and just pretty much not flexible at all. But I found this same situation at a lot of schools. At that time I felt it was a little too much at Nova. Looking back I am not so sure. But I do know that the school did have issues with the way it treats its teachers. I know many teachers who were very disrespected and treated a little harshly. I also know teachers who loved the experience. Basically for me I felt they didn’t treat the teachers very good. Also, from the very beginning、 I didn’t like the pricing strategy there. I had many many students who were a little stressed out over their strategy. But I wouldn’t say they were much more expensive than other schools. Just the way they charged for lessons was a little different. But many schools have copied that same system. So all in all I thought my experience in Nova wasn’t good or bad.

Do I think the school is effective in teaching English and getting people to improve their English?? YES! But I say this because I think anytime a person has a chance to speak with a native speaker and learn and practice their English with someone who has natural speaking ability is necessary. So going to Nova and speaking and learning from someone who has native speaking ability will improve your English. But other schools do the same. My point it just being able to speak and learn from someone with native speaking ability will improve your English. Nova’s learning system was no better than other systems at some other schools in my opinion. But if you are comfortable in their system that is good. Students need to be comfortable. I think that’s important. So Nova as a school in my opinion is really no different than other schools. Just that it had money and resources.

But one difference as of late….. bad, dishonest, and greedy management. This is what is killing the school. (There are other issues too.) This is the sad fact. Nova provides a good service. But the way it has been providing it is very selfish in my opinion. It’s sad and frustrating to see a company who gets too greedy and forgets who the customer is.

How do you feel about the teachers now at Nova? How do you feel about their qualifications? As for the teachers of Nova, I feel sorry for them. They have been treated completely unfairly lately from the company. Some of the stories I am hearing are unfair. But in a sense I am not so surprised because that is kind of the nature of the business. But I think everyone eventually will be ok. I don’t think too many Nova teachers made a career out of teaching there. In my experience it was kind of a place people would work for a couple years at the most and then continue on in life with something else or somewhere else. But that’s just my opinion. I still feel sorry for the people who haven’t been paid and now find themselves in a foreign country without and money and job. I think the outcome of this can’t be very good. So I hope some good decisions are made quickly for everyone. As far as qualifications, I make no comment. Some teachers in Japan are there to teach. Some are there to earn a quick buck. Nova`s teachers are no different than teachers in many other schools. But not all schools are the same.

Someone asked me in an email the other day if I felt Nova is really needed these days? My first reply is yes. I think they are needed. There are many people who still desire and need to improve their English schools. English as a global language is very important. There are English language school in the United States that helps Native speakers with their pronunciation and accents. Many people are surprised to hear this. But it’s true. This is because there is a desire even in native speaking countries for people to improve their communication skills. So anyway if you have confidence in your English and feel you don`t need to improve then I guess you don`t need to worry about it. If you feel you want to improve or need to improve of just have a hobby of studying English, then yes language schools are needed.

So now I hope I have answered all the questions. Its an intersting topic which I am happy to discuss anytime since I am working and interesting in teaching English.

Now on to Sports.... Rockies lost...!! $#&%!! But the Red Sox are too strong. I think they have a really good chance to win again next year.

For tonight... GO DRAGONS !!!

OK OK I have a lot of people asking me about the World Series in the United States and now the championship series in Japan. So let me tell you who I am cheering for.

World Series.... GO ROCKIES... ! (The have never won and they are the underdog... I have to cheer for them. )

For Japan Series... GO DRAGONS... ! (They lost last year. Plus I now live in Nagoya so I have to cheer for them). BUT... my heart is in Hokkaido... just not with the fighters right now. So sorry to all my friends and family in Hokkaido. Don`t worry... my heart is "dosanko" all the way!!

So now I have made it clear who I am cheering for. On other sports my football team "Denver Broncos" are doing completely terrible this year. I guess its a good year to be in Japan away from the sport this year since they suck so bad. NBA starts up in a couple of weeks and I am very interested to watch my team "Utah Jazz". I really hope they at least repeat whe they did last year. So anyway the sports are in high gear and lots to keep track of... Its hard to concentrate at work. I am checking live sports scores as much as I can.... hehe. Don`t tell anyone!!!

Ahhhh Thursday afternoon…. Some people may be asking why I am blogging on Thursday afternoon… well good question. Just taking a quick break from life. I found myself starting to almost fall asleep at my desk. Its been a very quiet day and I have no huge fires going on right now. Just a few small ones here and there. But today I got involved into some other things during lunch so I worked thru lunch. So now I am just taking a break!!

I got some terrible news yesterday a dear friend has passed away. I am shocked. He was hunting in the mountains and got hit by lightning. It was very sudden. It just breaks my heart. He has a wife and 3 children. So it got me thinking about how precious this time really is. The death of a friend or family always get you thinking deep. But this really is such a tragedy and I have been thinking the last couple days about this. It makes me homesick too !!!

Then I hear about a stabbing death of a little 7 year old girl here in Japan. She was stabbed in the chest and stomach. I can’t believe it. What is going on in the world that people are stabbing little children. I wish I could have 10 minutes in a room with the guy who did this. If there ever was a case to support the death penalty its now. I can’t believe we have such sick people walking around the streets. I also can’t believe the amount of violent crimes held against innocent children in Japan. I hear so much of this news it makes me sick. Why here? I feel like I hear more of this in Japan than in the United States. I am sure it happens everywhere. But it seems to be on the news a lot here. Still I know there are sick people in every country. It just depresses me a little.

Well enough of the dark stuff….. the weather is nice and fall food is awesome!! I am eating oden from 7/11 almost once a week now….hehe.

having any fun??

This last past week has been hell.... there is no other words to describe it... Last week started out good. I met Kent Derricott last Friday night. Many of my friends in Japan know of him. So it was good to see him and he always makes you smile. Then after that I met some people from my company in America. So that was good too. After that pure hell....

Work has been too crazy. I am just tired of the same old routine everyday working long hours and coming home and finding something to eat and then go to bed. Nothing exciting at all. I need something new!!! I just don`t know how the guys in my office live. There is a work ethic that I just can`t seem to catch up with. The other Japanese companies I have worked for were never this bad. My company isn`t even Japanese. Its really from Sweden and thats where our headquarters. But this office here is loaded with old salarymen who think nothing but 100% pure work work work.... Its crazy... I mean no life at all... I heard a new song the other day that I really liked and it pretty much decided what I am feeling... Here are some of the words...

"I wanna feel a car crash"
"I wanna feel a capsize"
"I wanna feel a bomb drop earth stop till I`m satisfied"
"Iwanna feel a car crash cause I am dying on the inside"

This is basically it. I mean nothing going on. I am doing the same thing everyday and nothing is waking me up. I feel completely like some damn zombie just going to work and having no life. Oh well its alright.... time to stop bitching. Just need something to give me a boost...... I guess its time for a jack and coke....hehe
Happy Friday........ :)

English Speech Contest:

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the day at a regional English speech contest. I was chosen as the head judge for this contest here in Nagoya. It was a regional championship with the winner going on to Tokyo for the national champion.

It is always interesting going to these speech contests. I remember going as a coach of students many years back. Not much changes. I saw coaches there this time as well. The theme of the speech contest was "family". It was interesting and even very touching to hear high school students give a speech on what family means to them. I heard of a lot of personal stories and the content of all the speeches was absolutely incredible. I was very impressed. Of coarse there was a big difference between students who had coaches and student who didn`t. It was very easy to understand. Some students were over coached. Meaning their gestures and tone of their voice was just too much and was not natural at all. Some of the speeches were more like a theater performance than a speech. Other speeches were maybe very natural but lacked some proper pronunciation or grammar.

Still it is always refreshing to see and here these students. But I am always proud of all the students who challenge a speech contest. No matter the outcome everyone is a winner because everyone studied and learned while getting ready. I really enjoy being involved in these type of activities whether helping a student prepare or judging the students. Its a great atmosphere and even though I am a native speaker, I usually walk away from it learning something.

Its Friday night about 12:00 midnight. Me, Andy who came over and my friend jump out of the car and its freezing cold!! I was surprised how cold it was. The night was clear and the stars were bright. We put on our gear and turned our headlamps on and started up the mountain. We started at stage 5. It tool only a few minutesfor us to reach stage 6. When we got there I thought to myself "this really isn`t that bad. No big deal". When we got to stage 6 there was no onethere. We did see other climbers on the mountain above us. We could see their lights. We took the wrong trail at stage 6 and instead of climbing up we noticed the trail was actually taking us down and around. I thought this couldn`t be right. We stopped and talked about it for a minute. We decided to hike back to stage 6 and make sure we took the right trail. Well we didn`t! We ended up wasting about 20 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. We had to hurry because we wanted to see the sun rise.

The hike from stage 6 started to get a little tougher. I found myself starting to breath heavy and needing more and more rest. We understood that we wasted too much energy on the previous stage. So the hike started to get a little slower. But we finally were able to find our pace and kept continuing up the mountain. I learned the trick is to slow it down and stay consistent in pace. I wish I would have learned that earlier like when wes tarted. Its about 3:30am and we are at Stage 7 now. Its getting windy and some mist and fog is rolling in. We rest for a little bit and start up for stage 8. We are going along for about 20 minutes and pass some people coming down. Iask them how far to stage 8. They tell me they didn`t know because it was so windy they gave up. When I heard that I thought..."great this is goingto get fun now". So we kept going and little by little the weather started toget worse. The wind really started to get strong and the mist was very heavy. My jacket started to drip water from the moisture in the air and it was getting colder and colder. I was getting really worried about Andy. But he was really hanging in there.

Stage 8 took forever! We hiked and hiked. It seemed to never come and then finally we made it. We rested for a few minutes and ate some food. My friend and Andy fell asleep for a few minutes and I refused to sit down. I knew if I sat down I would be dead. So I just stood up and ate some nuts and chocolate. After about 15 minutes we decided to start up to stage 9. We know that was going to be rough also. The wind was really bad now and we passed more people going the other way. However, by now the sky was getting lighter. We hoped maybe we could still make it to the top for the sun rise but also wondered if the mist would clear to see a sunrise. We got to stage 9 and we had a little more energy. But I was having a hard time breathing. My friend took out his little O2 tank and took a few breaths. I had one also but the wind was so crazy and the mist was starting to feel like rain so I didn`t want to take off my pack. I just stood up again and ate a protein bar and drank some water. I knew again if I sat down I wouldn`t get back up. So no sitting. We knew there was only 1 more stage and the sky was getting lighter. So we started up. After a while we were able to turn offour head lamps. It was about 6:30am. We knew we missed the sunrise. I was disappointed. Still the weather was so bad we knew the sunrise would not bevisible anyway. But we thought we should at least get to the top since we climbed so much. The wind was really bad and the mist was now rain. The rain was falling sideways in our face and really blowing into us. I was so happy I spent some money on good rain gear. We were completely dead now. We saw some people coming down. My friend asked how much longer before we get to the top. He said "its about another 15 minutes right"? The guy looked at us and said "no its about another 45 minutes from here and with this weather it could take you much longer". I about died. Andy almost died too. He said "thats not what I wanted to hear!!" Part of me felt to just give up and leave. The other part said just finish it! So we decided to finish. We finally made it on top about 7:45am.

As I got to the top the wind was so bad it was almost hard to stand. The rain was coming down hard and you could see nothing. Everything was closed because hiking season was over. We stood next to a wall of a small building trying to get some shelter from the wind and rain. But that didn`t work. We saw standing there in the rain on top of Mt. Fuji a guy in tennis shoes, a light nylon jacket with no hat, no gloves, and jeans. I couldn`t believe it! He was shaking so bad and his face looked almost panicked. I asked if he was ok in Japanese and learned he wasn`t Japanese. I think he was Chinese. My friend and I knew he was in trouble. It was cold, wet, and windy. I was wondering if the rain was going to turn to snow. It was that cold. I thought this guy could die up here very easy. But there was nothing we could really do for him. He started down the hill shaking and looking really bad. We decided to follow him down after a couple minutes. We were only on the top for about 10minutes and decided to get down. So we left. We tried to look for this guy but never saw him again. I really wondered if he was ok but nothing on the news so I guess so. No news is good news. Still I can`t believe how stupid some people can be.

About halfway down the weather broke. The wind died down and the rainfinally stopped. My feel and hands were soaked. The sun felt so good. Werested at stage 7 again for a few minutes and ate some food and enjoyed thesun. It actually started to get hot now. I pulled off some clothes andpacked them up. It felt good. But I was upset because now the weather was really nice and we couldn`t see anything on top. Oh well... we continued back down and finally made it to the car.

The last stage down the mountain almost killed me. My body was so stiff and my muscles were tight. I have never been so happy to see a car in my life. We got some fresh clothes outof the car and changed real quick and left. I was so happy to finally sit.It was the first time I sat down since we started to climb up. Driving back down to the hotel I was trying so hard to stay awake. My friend kept talking to me and I was trying to listen but found myself closing my eyeslonger and longer. He stopped at a 7-11 and I bought a coke and a niku man.That kept me awake until we finally reached the hotel.The hot hot shower never felt so good. I tried to stretch my legs and back in the hot water. I should have went to an onsen. But I was too tired to do anything. I got out of the shower and laid in bed at around 4:30pm. Ataround 6:30 I woke up and was hungry. So I went and got some pizza and spaghetti at a near by restaurant (which was good!). After eating I went back to the hotel and fell asleep at around 8:00pm.I woke up around 8:00am and my body was stiff. My legs ached so much and my throat was sore. But I was ok. We went up to the top floor of the hotel toeat some breakfast. From our table we had a great view of Mt. Fuji. As welooked I said how disappointed I was we couldn`t see the sunrise or the topwhile we were there. It was quiet for a few minutes, I then said well I guess we have to come back next year and do this all over again. So we decided thats what we will do. Everyone told me that in Japan people say "a person climbs Mt. Fuji once but a fool climbs it twice". I will be that fool as long as my body gets back to normal in the next couple days.

Are you ready for some football??!!

Finally!! Football season is here. This is always a great time to be home in the United States. Football is an exciting time. I got myself ready though. I bought the whole season of games on Yahoo to watch and also got my satellite so I am completely covered. But one thing... no football food and no football weather. It feels strange to watch a game and its still so hot and humid. I am used to it getting much cooler and dry in Utah. But its ok. The games are on and I am still happy. My team won their opening game in exciting fashion so I am ready for next week. Ahhhhh I have something to look forward to...

Well on another note the US Open was kind of a drag. Roddick lost again. Nothing new. Nadal lost also. Feder won again and the coverage was terrible!!! Next year I need to do something different. wowwow sucks.

I was going to go climb mt. Fuji this weekend. But it looks like rain. So I will put it off. Maybe in two weeks if its good weather. But its so late in the year now I am not sure. But I want to give it a try so I hope the weather is good in a couple weeks. I will go. This weekend just looks terrible. Maybe every weekend for the next month will not be so good. Somebody told me now I can expect more rain. Man it rains too much here!!! But I spent a ton of money and got some gear so I need to get out and use it.

I guess thats it for my sports life right now. I kind of miss my life back in the US. But things are good here too. I look forward to having some free time to get out and do somethings. All work and no play makes todd a dull boy. But hey... Tomorrow is Friday!!