An unhealthy obsession
Having worked in one of the most reputable and successful eikaiwas 「英会話」in Japan, and having promptly decided to leave, I can't help but wonder what on earth all the fuss is about and why Japanese businessmen, students, and hobbyists alike, all seem so willing to part with vast amounts of cash for something so completely superficial.
Where to begin? Well, why do students go to an Eikaiwa like Nova, or Gaba, in the first place? One attraction to these kinds of schools is the focus on conversation. 英会話 after all means English + Meeting + Talk. Japanese learners of English sign up because in their education at school, English education is based solely on the memorisation and reproduction of grammar rules on paper; there's no focus on conversation. But does this really warrant going from one extreme to the other? Judging by the billions of Yen being poured into the coffers of English Conversation Schools everywhere, it does.
So what's the problem with the schools? Bluntly, that they completely fail to improve the students' linguistic abilities. This is due to the following reasons:
1. The teachers do not need any qualifications or teaching experience to teach. As such, very few of them if confronted with a marginally difficult grammar question will be able to answer or provide an adequate explanation.
2. Lacking proper training, the teachers are usually subjected to a superfluous induction program where they're shown how to 'search on the internet' and how to field difficult grammar questions (simply reply "It's not important"... seriously that's what I was told to say).
3. The quality of lessons is judged entirely by the students. This is simply ridiculous because if the students can't speak the language, how can they judge if they're being taught it correctly? The score teachers get is a reflection of how much the students enjoyed the lesson, but it is not a clear indication of whether or not they've learnt something. As such, lessons generally descend into overblown bouts of hyper-complementing the students and saying "Well done, you're great" even if they can't pronounce "a".
The lack of required training, suitable in house training, or continued effective evaluation means that students rarely make any progress, nor have any way of knowing if they are making any progress because they are their own judge. Senior Management plays no role in the students' progress and, seeing as the teachers rarely know how to track progress, neither do they.
Those are the problems, which begs the question, why are these infernal places still so popular? Well, so far as I can tell, it's basically down to massive marketing budgets and strong brand identity. TV commercials attack commuters on trains with a frequency that rivals McDonalds, TV commercials which have Japanese celebrities starring as the students. I would tentatively suggest that it's also tied into Japanese culture. It's not the social norm to rock the boat or complain by demanding anything different to what's already on offer, so if eikaiwas are pouring money into advertising and they become popular, once the trend is in place it's very unlikely to be broken.
Whereas in London there are constantly different styles of schools vying for top place, which in turn encourages students to experiment between them, in Japan everyone is happy to maintain harmony by going along with what's already popular. In London, the market has a voice and habits which thus leads to a variety of different schools, but Japan's student population is largely voiceless and held rapt by existent trends, unable to break out for fear of disrupting the norm. As such, it's quite possible to imagine eikaiwas being the dominant market force in English education for some time to come.
The end result of this is quite sad for the students. I've taught individuals who, despite having come to the school for 3 years, still had a low-intermediate level of English. I've been teaching alongside other teachers who think that "speach", "ourselfs" and "I am hope seeing you soon" are acceptable examples of the English language. I've had a superior not know that there were two different ways to spell "Practice/Practise" and overheard other teachers berate students for saying "I'm fine thank you." "Fine thank you? Is that good English? We only say 'fine' when we're angry about something." (Really?! Which bizarre country do you come from?)
My advice would be to study at home with a decent textbook (anything by Murphy) accompanied by a CD, and gradually build your level from children's books, through to teenage fiction, to newspapers and higher fiction, all the time listening to natural English from online news broadcasts and television shows.
My advice if you're a qualified teacher is: don't be lured by the easy offer of a job. Stay in your current job in your country and wait until you've secured something that demands more of its teachers. It'll save you a lot of disappointment, hassle, and stress.
