City Directly Employs Former Nova Teachers

Hope it helps, I’ve seen old ladies selling dumplings in China who can speak better English than some Japanese university-bound students, and I think the problem is that the way English is taught is merely done so to pass some arbitrary test rather than actually utilize the language in real life.

Since English is the current “common language”, Americans have less incentive to learn a second language compared to other countries. That will likely change as it has before (French used to be the common language). People generally have a larger commitment to learning something if they see some utility in it for their futures.

However, this article isn’t about second languages in America. It’s about how Nova teachers were hired directly by a company that used to work through a middle man to employ them. In theory, not using a middleman sounds great but, in practice, most of the businesses that find teachers via services are getting several important things for their money. In this situation, the teachers were in place and known. The employer didn’t have to run ads, conduct interviews, negotiate terms, craft contracts, select textbooks, or construct lesson plans. The middleman also takes care of any quality control issues or communication-based problems. Developing course content in particular is something few teachers can handle (though many erroneously believe they can). Few of the companies that hire via middlemen have the experience or language skills to handle the situation related to dealing with teachers and managing classes.

The company I used to work at provided teachers for in-company lessons (among other things) and this is a very troublesome business. Teachers are late, leave in the middle of contracts, or do not teach what they’re asked. Companies complain about trivial matters, desire idiosyncratic course content or changes mid-stream in the course they already agreed upon, change schedules without communicating that fact, and try to mess with the payment structure. The middleman is a buffer between the two and tends to make sure neither side gets screwed as well as puts some quality control (both in terms of course content and teacher selection) in place. More often than not, the middleman protects the teacher more than the contracting company though the company’s interests always come first.

The only good thing about this change is that professional agencies who specialize in on-site teaching may be tapped into rather than places like Nova which used this business as a side to vacuum up more money without actually possessing any expertise in this area.