BAD English Schools in Japan - MSE

I can't seem to find a single Forum Board *yet* that comprehensively addresses this topic so I've decided to start a series here.

In this series I will introduce the places you absolutely want to avoid if you are looking to teach English in Japan.

In this first installment, allow me to introduce the school I am currently at, MSE, Mizusawa School of English in Iwate prefecture. They apparently post in several places like ESL Elite, but they normally post here and this is were I originally found them.

One phrase: SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
And we're not just talking the verbal kind. I've put up with plenty of pornographic comments working at MSE without complaint. Nope, we're talking the touchy-feely, skin-crawling kind of sexual harassment.

Apparently no one bothered to tell them this was a place of learning, not a hostess bar.

If that is not enough to turn you off, how about CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY WORK?
I was not aware they were missionaries until I started working. It is fine to have faith I think; but NOT when it is an unspoken part of the school curriculum. And she will try to convert the students, oh so subtly. The younger ones are rather blind to it, but the adults aren't. Each and every one asked me, "When you leave, who will teach?" When I responded, "Mrs. Mine", not one of them looked the least bit happy about it.

Still not convinced?
How about "forced labor"?
I was deathly sick for one week, but because I wasn't allowed to stay home, it dragged on for weeks. That was in March. I'm still seeing doctors for treatment ALL AT MY EXPENSE 4 months later.

Shall we try unannounced "pay cuts"?
Fine. Go ahead and cut my pay, but do NOT wait to tell me you have done it after a whole month has past!! An upfront and honest employer would tell you beforehand, not four weeks and 100000 later.

Seriously people, MSE - avoid this place like the plague.



Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!

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Oshu-shi : The Japanese Youngstown

"It's country living", they said.
The hell it is.
This place is Youngstown ,OH transplanted to Northern Japan.
What that means is that it is a dying city filled with delapidated, rusted out factories interspersed with rice fields.
It's the rust-belt all over again!! (And everyone knows how much I despise, l.o.a.t.h.e. Youngstown.)
The school itself is located close to a small factory so every once in awhile we get the wonderous perfume of burning metal and welding wafting throughtout the entire building.

And the driving!
Youngstown ALL over again.
The worst driving I've ever seen--cars blatantly going through stale red lights, driving 50 mph through side streets and the streets here would be only wide enough to fit a single Hummer, if that.

Country is pretty fields and this ain't it. (We won't even discuss the overrunning spider population. I'm sure they outnumber us 3-1 at the very least.)

That being said with some concentrated searching, I have found that I can buy just about everything I need online except for eggs. Soymilk, rice, a dozen different lentils, detergent, spices; literally everything but eggs--all online. Thank god because not only does the wind NEVER stop blowing, but I had to go to my favorite clothes depot today (which they actually have in this backwater) and buy turtlenecks--it's that cold already!
I'm literally busy battening down to hatches--marking where I can buy clothes online, ordering food in bulk for storage so I don't have to go out in the -10 weather come January. I'm almost finished hanging extra "curtains" in the living room/bedroom. There's no such thing as insulation in Japan so the key to staying warm is wearing many layers--not just for yourself, but for your home.

From now on, I'm hibernating with my bag of Ghiradelli chocolate until March.

Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!

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