in hot, make that BOILING water

7 NOVA teachers arrested for cannabis, cocaine

Seven foreign teachers working at the NOVA English language conversation school have been arrested on suspicion of violating a law on illegal drugs and the Cannabis Control Law, police said Wednesday.

Police accuse the seven of possessing five bags containing a total of about 1.5 grams of powdered cocaine, and 15 bags containing a total of about 8.2 grams of cannabis, on a street in Tokyo's Roppongi district on Nov. 19 last year.

Don't let the cute mascot of theirs fool you! If you are not in the know, NOVA is the biggest English language conversational school...and one could also say the most ruthless one of all the chain schools. In the past I heard they hired foreigners at the airport, straight off the plane...something which, I do not doubt. Not all NOVA teachers are bad but a good crop of those I met were real jerks. The men really look down on Japan, talk about all the girls they laid the other night, diss Japanese culture, trash the food, and don't put any effort into teaching. Some NOVA teachers who start out with good personalities change for the worse due to those 'rotten apple' teachers. This incident is sad news for the few 'good' Nova teachers out there.

One of my former students at AEON signed up for NOVA, paid all at once, went to the school only to be ignored by the teacher and fellow classmates. I thought she was particularly sensitive but I in fact met a man who works at the NOVA school she went (goes?) to and was told by his girlfriend (my friend) that he sometimes makes fun of students or ignores those whose level is still relatively low. OUCH - can you imagine paying to be ignored by your teacher? That is really mean and disheartening to hear. I totally, completely lost respect for him after I heard that. And this is good money, like 40 dollars an hour! My poor friend - she dreaded going to class each week...I really felt for her.

As for this recent case involving NOVA teachers and pot, cocaine...it does not surprise me in the least. In fact I am surprised it did not happen much much earlier! Doing pot is kind of 'tolerated' in the West, especially liberal areas...however getting into crack (cocaine) - now that's serious stuff, a whole different ballgame. At AEON's 'so-called' teacher training week, they stressed how important it was not to take the drugs issue lightly. Japanese people take it very seriously, they said, and taking pot is equivalent to hard drugs such as crack. So they told all the AEON teachers to lie to students if they ever had past drug experience. (though comparable, I still think Aeon, Berlitz, and Geos teachers are leaps and bounds ahead of those at NOVA, probably a result of more rigorous interviewing procedures)

Did the teachers at AEON lie? Yes. My husband was told by one of the teachers he never got into drugs. What a laugh. In the teacher's room he and another teacher were often recounting or comparing stories about how stoned (high on pot) they were, all the while laughing and wishing they could get pot in Japan as easily. What losers. The funniest thing is, most of the Japanese women were really into/infatuated with those guys...but to foreign women, we would not date them if they were the last man alive!!!

Nothing like smearing corporate image in Japan with a drugs scandal. This hurts not only Nova but all schools in the industry. I wish all the losers would go home, where they belong!