Eikaiwa
Encyclopedia
or often shortened to , are English conversation
schools, usually privately operated, in Japan
. It is a combination of the word and
.
Although the Japanese public education
system mandates that English be taught as part of the curriculum
from fifth grade
, the focus is generally on English grammar
. Some students attend eikaiwa schools to supplement their school studies, to study a second language, to improve their business skills, as a hobby, to help socialize, or to prepare for travel. Many parents send their children to these schools in the hope of improving their child's hopes of higher education
, or to encourage them to be at ease with foreigners (who teach most of the classes).
, French
, Italian
, German
, Chinese
, and Korean
. These languages are taught primarily at larger city branches or through videoconferencing. In 2002, foreign language instruction in Japan was a 670 billion yen industry, of which the five largest chains (Nova, GEOS
, ECC
, Aeon
, and Berlitz
) accounted for 25%. Nova, the biggest, filed for bankruptcy
in October 2007. Berlitz
was once considered one of the "Big Four", but its market share has declined in recent years and it was overtaken by ECC. ECC
and Aeon
have become the most widely recognized eikaiwa English conversation schools in Japan
. The large eikaiwa operate extensive advertising campaigns in print and on television; they sometimes feature Japanese or international celebrities in their promotions and have a very high profile and strong brand recognition.
A 2008 assessment of the language study market for fiscal year 2007 showed it had shrunk by over 61%, an effect of Nova's
collapse, although demand for some services like software and lessons for children had increased. GEOS filed for bankruptcy in April 2010.
, the United Kingdom
, Canada
, Australia
, Ireland
or New Zealand
. According to The Japan Times, the Justice Ministry estimates that some 90 percent of foreign residents in Japan stay for three years or less. For eikaiwa teachers, however, that figure rises to between 96 and 97 percent. Few instructors have a formal teaching qualification
; most receive on-the-job training. Some companies offer teachers the ability to gain CELTA
certification while teaching. Teachers coming from countries that do not have a working holiday visa
agreement with Japan must have a university degree to obtain a Japanese work visa
.
Eikaiwa school managers generally do not have formal backgrounds in management, but some do have Japanese language
skills that allow them to communicate with Japanese management. Some larger schools have unions, which are affiliated to the National Union of General Workers
.
, once the largest school in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, was sued twice by its employees in the space of 13 months for withheld wages. During the second lawsuit its directors fled, while ignoring a court order to pay. News reports indicated the business was closed, but according to its business registration it is still a legal operating entity with 30 million yen in equity, and has never been in a state of bankruptcy.
Teaching English as a foreign language
Teaching English as a foreign language refers to teaching English to students whose first language is not English. TEFL usually occurs in the student's own country, either within the state school system, or privately, e.g., in an after-hours language school or with a tutor...
schools, usually privately operated, in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It is a combination of the word and
.
Although the Japanese public education
Education in Japan
In Japan, education is compulsory at the elementary and lower secondary levels. Approximately 98% of all students progress to the upper secondary level, which is voluntary . Most students attend public schools through the lower secondary level, but private education is popular at the upper...
system mandates that English be taught as part of the curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
from fifth grade
Fifth grade
Fifth grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The fifth grade is the fifth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 10 – 11 years old, and are preteens...
, the focus is generally on English grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
. Some students attend eikaiwa schools to supplement their school studies, to study a second language, to improve their business skills, as a hobby, to help socialize, or to prepare for travel. Many parents send their children to these schools in the hope of improving their child's hopes of higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
, or to encourage them to be at ease with foreigners (who teach most of the classes).
Schools
The major chains of commercial language schools have branches in cities and towns throughout Japan, and there are large numbers of smaller independent outfits. Several chains offer instruction in other languages, including SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, and Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
. These languages are taught primarily at larger city branches or through videoconferencing. In 2002, foreign language instruction in Japan was a 670 billion yen industry, of which the five largest chains (Nova, GEOS
GEOS (eikaiwa)
was one of the Big Four private eikaiwa, or English conversation teaching companies, in Japan. Its extensive network of overseas schools made it the world's largest language school chain. The firm went into bankruptcy in Japan on 20 April 2010...
, ECC
ECC (eikaiwa)
is one of the major private English teaching companies or eikaiwa in Japan.ECC is based mainly in the Kansai region of Japan and has 148 schools nationwide with many branches in the Chūbu and Kantō areas but has not entered into the rural market to the same extent as major competitor GEOS...
, Aeon
AEON (eikaiwa)
is a chain of English conversation teaching companies in Japan. It is considered one of the historical "Big Four" eikaiwa schools. Although it shares a nearly identical name in English, Aeon is not affiliated with the Aeon Group, a major Japanese retail and financial services corporation.The...
, and Berlitz
Berlitz Language Schools
Berlitz Corporation is a global leadership training and education company with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey and Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded in 1878 by Maximilian D. Berlitz in Providence, Rhode Island...
) accounted for 25%. Nova, the biggest, filed for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in October 2007. Berlitz
Berlitz Language Schools
Berlitz Corporation is a global leadership training and education company with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey and Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded in 1878 by Maximilian D. Berlitz in Providence, Rhode Island...
was once considered one of the "Big Four", but its market share has declined in recent years and it was overtaken by ECC. ECC
ECC (eikaiwa)
is one of the major private English teaching companies or eikaiwa in Japan.ECC is based mainly in the Kansai region of Japan and has 148 schools nationwide with many branches in the Chūbu and Kantō areas but has not entered into the rural market to the same extent as major competitor GEOS...
and Aeon
AEON (eikaiwa)
is a chain of English conversation teaching companies in Japan. It is considered one of the historical "Big Four" eikaiwa schools. Although it shares a nearly identical name in English, Aeon is not affiliated with the Aeon Group, a major Japanese retail and financial services corporation.The...
have become the most widely recognized eikaiwa English conversation schools in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The large eikaiwa operate extensive advertising campaigns in print and on television; they sometimes feature Japanese or international celebrities in their promotions and have a very high profile and strong brand recognition.
A 2008 assessment of the language study market for fiscal year 2007 showed it had shrunk by over 61%, an effect of Nova's
Nova (eikaiwa)
Nova was the largest eikaiwa school in Japan until its widely publicized collapse in October 2007. Before its bankruptcy, Nova employed approximately 15,000 people across a group of companies that supported the operations of and extended out from the "Intercultural Network" of its language schools...
collapse, although demand for some services like software and lessons for children had increased. GEOS filed for bankruptcy in April 2010.
Staff
Eikaiwa teachers are generally native English speakers from the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
or New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. According to The Japan Times, the Justice Ministry estimates that some 90 percent of foreign residents in Japan stay for three years or less. For eikaiwa teachers, however, that figure rises to between 96 and 97 percent. Few instructors have a formal teaching qualification
Teaching qualification
A teaching qualification or teacher qualification is one of a number of academic and professional degrees that enables a person to become a registered teacher in primary or secondary school...
; most receive on-the-job training. Some companies offer teachers the ability to gain CELTA
CELTA
The Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults is a professional credential held by many teachers of English as a foreign language.-Overview:...
certification while teaching. Teachers coming from countries that do not have a working holiday visa
Working holiday visa
A working holiday visa is a travel permit which allows travellers to undertake employment in the country issuing the visa for the purpose of supplementing their travel funds....
agreement with Japan must have a university degree to obtain a Japanese work visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
.
Eikaiwa school managers generally do not have formal backgrounds in management, but some do have Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
skills that allow them to communicate with Japanese management. Some larger schools have unions, which are affiliated to the National Union of General Workers
National Union of General Workers
The The National Union of General Workers is the shortened, English title of the National Union of General Workers National Council , a national labour union council established in 1991...
.
Scandals
The American ClubAmerican Club (eikaiwa)
For other uses, see American Club is a company based in the Motoimaizumi district of Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan, which has been involved in the "eikaiwa" business. It was sued for withheld wages twice, by two groups of employees. The first lawsuit took place in December 1994 and the second in...
, once the largest school in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, was sued twice by its employees in the space of 13 months for withheld wages. During the second lawsuit its directors fled, while ignoring a court order to pay. News reports indicated the business was closed, but according to its business registration it is still a legal operating entity with 30 million yen in equity, and has never been in a state of bankruptcy.
Further reading
- David L. McConnell, Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program (2000)
- Bruce FeilerBruce FeilerBruce Feiler is a popular American writer on faith, family, and finding meaning in everyday life. He is the best-selling author of nine books, including Walking the Bible, Abraham, and America's Prophet, and one of only a handful of writers to have four consecutive New York Times nonfiction...
, Learning to Bow: An American Teacher in a Japanese School (1991), later published as Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan - Benjamin Hesse, Memoirs of a Gaijin (2007)