I've been teaching English for 6 years now and came to (from Germany) Japan 6 days ago to work for GES in Matsusaka. In short, this has been the worst experience of my professional career! I started looking for jobs in the countryside of Japan in January of 2006 and got lots of offers. My mistake was that I turned down 7 positions to work for Kojima-san at GES. Right from the very start, this school, especially the boss/president/owner, Kojima-san, struck me as extremely disorganized and above all, unprofessional. At the beginning of February I accepted the contract, signed it, and sent it via the post along with all the other documents and photos that GES required to sponsor my Visa to work in Japan. I was initially informed that the visa would be waiting for me upon my arrival, but when I got here I was told that they hadn't even started the process. But that was ok, or so I thought. I was told I had a place to stay near the school, but when I was taken to the house, I was told that I'd be eventually be living elsewhere, but they didn't know where. So OK, no big problem, just a minor annoyance. The real problems on day one were that they didn't give me a contract with Kojima-san's signature (never did in fact), that I wasn't shown how to use or where a bank machine might be, and that I had no idea where I might eat after 14 hours of travel. So I go the school last Tuesday night and ask for my training schedule for the coming days and was given a four day schedule and told who I would be observing. Great, I thought, finally I was getting somewhere. On Wednesday I was to begin work in Tsu at 1:30 PM, Wednesday morning I was told that I had to arrive at the Matsusaka school at 10 AM, but this was no big deal, I showed up on time. The problem was, I was still expected to work until 9:30 PM, making for a very long first day. At the end of that day I was informed that I had to be at the train station by 2:30 PM. On Thursday, I and another colleague began to get ready at 1PM, at 1:15, Kojima-san phoned to say that she would be there in 3 minutes and that we had to be at the train station for 1:30PM. At this point I was getting a little frustrated with this woman's complete lack of professionalism. So I hurriedly got dressed, put on some corduroy pants (big mistake!) and rushed to meet this stupid woman. So we make it on time with no food in our bellies like the morning before. We go to the Ise school and begin our training, (I was scheduled for 3 classes), after one class an office person comes in and says that the schedule has changed, that I'd be training with another teacher and that I had 9, not 3, classes to observe. A few hours later the disorganized crazy boss sends me a fax (in poor English) saying I broke the rules by wearing unprofessional pants. At this point I didn't know what to think about GES, but I had sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The next day (Friday) I was supposed to be back in Ise, but Kojima-san phoned me, to say that I should come to the Matsusaka school on Friday. I was once again scheduled for 3 lessons, but had to view another entire day. On Saturday, day 4, I was scheduled to teach in Ise again, but of course this was no longer the case, I would be in Matsusaka. So I went to the school and worked until about 3PM. at this time Kojima-san told me that she needed to have a meeting with me and that she would meet me at my home in 15 minutes. I rushed home to wait. I was quite surprised when she arrived with two others. i assumed I was finally getting my own place and that i would no longer have to sleep on the floor of the living room. But I was in for a shock. She told me that she couldn't sponsor my visa and that I had 2 hours to vacate the premises!! When I asked why she said that I was unprofessional because I wore cords on day 2 (which was her fault, she only informed me that jeans were unacceptable) and that their was "a possibility that I might commit a crime", whatever that's supposed to mean???? I became quite distraught, and pressured her for specific details, which she could not provide. I also asked her why she had me "meeting my new students" and training all day. She said that she did not know she would fire me in the morning. Then she offered to give me a letter saying she fired me for financial reasons, which I promptly refused because I had no signature on the contract anyway. The most amazing thing about this last day was that she had lost almost all of her English ability and needed a translator there in order to do this most dishonorable crap to me!!! So now, all the other available jobs are taken, I'm living in a hotel in Tsu (she would't let me stay in Matsusaka, she actually wanted me to go to Nagoya!), spending all my money at restaurants, without any friends to help me, without any Japanese ability. I want to sue her for 1 years wages, does anyone know if this is possible, and how I might go about doing it? Does anyone know of any jobs that are available in the Mie area? I wish I'd stayed in Germany! @@ Apparently, another teacher arrived a week before I did and only lasted 3 days before Kojima-san fired him. I was told the guy wore tattered clothes and looked at porn on the scool computer, but maybe she says the same thing about me now. So be warned, if GES offers you a job, it isn't worth the paper it's written on. Kojima-san couldn't tell the truth if her life depended on it. She doesn't respect her teachers and if you work there, you are at the mercy of her neurotic whims....
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