Ministry Slaps Down Nova

[Mike Oxlong]

Fuck the semantics. I just wanna see the CUNTS burn.
Die NOVA Die!
Cunts! Fuck...

Note to self: take valium and swig of happoshu.

Ahhhhh.

Ok. Now where were we?

Valium & Xanax should only be mixed with the finest all malt beers

[kusai Jijii]

A little birdie told me that Nova is now on 'life support', flatlining, and they are about to turn off the switch. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
(Rubbing hands, licking lips, fingers crossed):devil2:

[Behan]

I don't know about refund calculations, but they were pulling a fast one with the dates of the student contracts. I think that the government made a 'cooling off period', a time in which customers of eikaiwas or estees could get full, or near-full, refunds if they changed their minds. At least I think so, anyway.
Nova wasn't considering the starting day the day the students bought the tickets but the day that the students came into a branch, talked to the staff, and gave them contact information.
Nova was taking the latter as the starting day to get the students past and out of the cooling off period.
Trying to say that giving them an address or phone number constitutes the start of a contract seems like thievery.
Sorry if this has already been discussed.

[FG Lurker]

A little birdie told me that Nova is now on 'life support', flatlining, and they are about to turn off the switch. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
(Rubbing hands, licking lips, fingers crossed):devil2:

If they are going to flatline I expect Oct 5th will be the day.

[kusai Jijii]

If they are going to flatline I expect Oct 5th will be the day.

That'll do. I'll live in hope for now. Think I'll order a pizza and stock the fridge with some top shelf imported beer on Friday night. Cant wait for the 7.00 NHK news;)

[American Oyaji]

Why October 5th?

[FG Lurker]

Why October 5th?

The teacher's union has been demanding wage payment, or at least an answer as to when outstanding wages will be paid. Last I heard NOVA put them off until Oct 5th. This is not an uncommon thing for a soon-to-be-bankrupt company to do, so..... If Jiji's information is correct then I would guess that the day will be Oct 5th, perhaps the 4th.

[Iraira]

The teacher's union has been demanding wage payment, or at least an answer as to when outstanding wages will be paid. Last I heard NOVA put them off until Oct 5th. This is not an uncommon thing for a soon-to-be-bankrupt company to do, so..... If Jiji's information is correct then I would guess that the day will be Oct 5th, perhaps the 4th.

So whose up for some wagering on this? And really, what odds can we set? I suppose that if someone had some inside knowledge, they could really clean up here. I will state for the receord, and you can trust me:( on this, that I have no inside knowledge, so after October 5, it will be
A) Business as usual 5:1
B) Complete closure 25:1
C) All NOVA teachers deported as act of vengence 50:1
D) ECC, GEOS, and GABA heads try to look sad on TV when asked how they feel about NOVA crashing and burning. 3:2
E) revealed that I do have inside knowledge and that my new Swiss bank account is swollen beyond belief. 100:1
F) my sex life improves as a result of my new found riches. off the board.

[kusai Jijii]

Big Fella,
for what its worth, let me help you reset your books:
a) about right.
b) too long.
c) rediculous.
d) too short.
e) you're on your own there.
f) ditto. (dont know - and dont wanna know - enough about the product!)

Happy punting.

[Taro Toporific]

So whose up for some wagering on this? ...after October 5, it will be
...
C) All NOVA teachers deported as act of vengence 50:1
.

[INDENT]Aussie teachers not paid, left homeless in Japan
Courier Mail -October 01, 2007 12:00am
THOUSANDS of Australians in Japan face the prospect of no jobs and no accommodation amid fears a large English school chain may collapse.
Nova, the bulk of whose 5000-strong foreign workforce is Australian, might go bankrupt as early as November, Tokyo-based business consultant Ken Worsley said.....
Nova, already reeling from a $US45 million ($50 million) loss between April and June, is experiencing a disastrous cash-flow situation, with a flood of students cancelling lesson packages and demanding refunds....
...300 eviction notices had been served to teachers living in Nova-sponsored apartments, with the company deducting rents from their salaries but not passing them on to landlords.....more...[/INDENT]

[kusai Jijii]

Surely this is it for the pink wabbit? No?

[Taro Toporific]

Surely this is it for the pink wabbit? No?

Ippai kikete, ippai shabereru' ...

[Catoneinutica]

Heh - looks like NoVa (that's "don't go") has deadbeat competition, according to Debito:

http://www.debito.org/index.php

-catone
-what's this about Metropolis/Japan Today being sold? Is FG member <redacted> no longer the Dear Leader?

[FG Lurker]

Heh - looks like NoVa (that's "don't go")

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

[Catoneinutica]

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

Gracias, vato!
BTW, Wikipedia says that JapanToday/Metropolis was sold to Terrie Lloyd's Japan Inc. Holdings (imaginative name there, Terr!) on Sept. 28, 2007. FG's own <redacted> must be lighting cigars with ichi-man yen bills as I post this.

-catone
-high five!

[FG Lurker]

Sparkzilla must be lighting cigars with ichi-man yen bills as I post this.

Maybe he won't have to steal bicycles anymore!

[Catoneinutica]

Maybe he won't have to steal bicycles anymore!

Heh!

-catone
-we KEED, sparkie!
-done thread hijacking

[kusai Jijii]

A guy I know just got told today that the branch school he works at will be closing down as Nova hasnt paid the rent there for several months. He has been told he will be transfered to another school. Whether that is just a stalling tactic to keep people working until the end of the month is another matter.

[GomiGirl]

Good for them. I know lots of people hang shit on the <redacted> but they are certainly high profile survivors in a tough game.

Terrie Lloyd I am sure is going to take it onto good things.

[ttjereth]

The private run eikaiwa school my wife attends (I refuse to try and play teacher to my wife and she likes to go and practice English) has recently (within the past few weeks) gotten a bunch of new teachers, all Australian, think it's connected?

[Catoneinutica]

Good for them. I know lots of people hang shit on the <redacted> but they are certainly high profile survivors in a tough game.

Terrie Lloyd I am sure is going to take it onto good things.

[oyajikun]

No news yet? I can hardly contain myself.

[FG Lurker]

No news yet? I can hardly contain myself.

Doesn't seem likely to happen today.

[Taro Toporific]

BTW, Wikipedia says that JapanToday/Metropolis was sold to Terrie Lloyd's Japan Inc. Holdings (imaginative name there, Terr!) on Sept. 28, 2007!

Gee, I leave town for a few weeks of fun in the Real World(c), and the Land-of-Concrete(tm) crumbles!:-|

However, I don't think Terrie Turd bought JapanToday (although he may have helped broker the deal in some way).[INDENT]

Japan Today acquired by GPlus Media
-Japan Today has new owners...
crisscross.com/2007/09
GPlus Media, the Tokyo-based Internet media company, announced that it has acquired 100% of JapanToday.com (http://www.japantoday.com), a leading English news website in Japan, from Crisscross Co Ltd for an undisclosed amount. ...
...GPlus Media’]...more...[/URL]



Press release: REUTERS

[/INDENT]

------
As far as NOVA goes or doesn't go---Never fear the robots are here...

Robot makes teaching debut
October 07 2007 at 08:54AM. iol.com
Children could hardly take their eyes off a new teacher when the instructor entered their classroom. Greeted with intense curiosity by the pupils, the teacher said: "How are you, my students? Let's get started. Have you opened the book?"
Although the voice sounded human, the teacher was not. It was a robot named Tiro, which was recently invited for one day to assist a human instructor with a 30-minute English class at Euon Primary School in the central South Korean city of Daejon, 250km south of Seoul....

[GuyJean]

.. GPlus Media, the Tokyo-based Internet media company, announced that it has acquired 100% of JapanToday.com (http://www.japantoday.com)..

Rearry?.. Wow. I used to make online infomercials for them.. I think they're behind SeekJapan, formerly known as Japanzine.. And also GaijinPot..

GJ

[sublight]

The private run eikaiwa school my wife attends (I refuse to try and play teacher to my wife and she likes to go and practice English) has recently (within the past few weeks) gotten a bunch of new teachers, all Australian, think it's connected?

Probably got a good deal on them: 10-in-an-apartment accommodations and two jars of vegemite a week as wages.

[Catoneinutica]

Gee, I leave town for a few weeks of fun in the Real World(c), and the Land-of-Concrete(tm) crumbles!:-|

However, I don't think Terrie Turd bought JapanToday (although he may have helped broker the deal in some way).

..While Japan Today was successful in terms of user numbers (two million page views/month), brand recognition and influence on public perception of Japan, despite our best efforts were not able to generate enough advertising from the site. We never really recovered sales momentum after the dot-com bust and after seven years trying we felt it would be better to move on, and let someone else give it a try...

Yeah, well, maybe if <redacted> had spent less time stalking Nick Baker online and more time working on his little site, "sales momentum" might've been better.

And Dios mio, man, the <redacted> both look like they arrived in Japan from somewhere beyond the orbit of Jupiter

-catone
-"Terry Turd"?

[Taro Toporific]

[Catoneinutica]

Yikes, this seems to be a total cashout...a Slice-n-Dice.

"I may be fookin' rich, or at least richer than that Sahashi bloke at the moment, but be a doss c*nt and I'll still get all Begbie on you, mate, don't cha know?! And <redacted> here, she'll eat your soul. Spread it on toast like marmalade and eat it."

-catone
-what an odd little backwater Japan's English media world has become when people like <redacted> and Terrie Turd are considered to be major players
-well, it was always an odd little backwater, but it seems to be getting littler.
-FG: Now that's a major fookin' player.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Japan Today: Australia offers consular aid to its nationals working for Nova

Australia is offering consular assistance to its nationals who are working in Japan for the scandal-hit English-language school operator Nova Corp, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Friday. "We'll provide them with consular assistance if they need it," he said, adding, "If they get into real personal difficulties we'll obviously help them out." Some 1,300 Australians work for Nova and face the real possibility of losing their jobs while living in a very expensive country, he said. While Nova has not gone completely bust yet, Downer said he fears the company would "fall over." Some 4,000 foreign teachers are currently registered with Nova in Japan, with many coming from Australia and New Zealand.