November 5, 2007
The Old Prepayment Catch
Japanese Lesson: How Do You Say, ‘Taken for a Ride’?
“Mr. Sahashi, who founded Nova in 1981, used a particularly inviting pitch. He promised his clients native English teachers at half the price or less charged by rival schools. He touted lessons as cheap as a movie ticket, so students could drop by as casually as if they were going to a bar. There was one catch: To get the cheapest price — about $13.50 for a 40-minute class — students had to pay in advance for 600 lessons.”
Whoa, committing to 600 lessons cost $8,100 upfront — that’s nuts. If Nova has been around since 1981, why did it collapse just now? I don’t get it. Too many students demanded refunds at once?
(I don’t know what people pay in Beijing to learn English, but $13.50 (around 100 Chinese Yuan) seems cheap for one-on-one instruction for 40 minutes. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Chinese person foolish (and rich) enough to commit to 600 lessons upfront, I think.)
November 5th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
I used to pay 20 RMB for Chinese lessons in 2004, one on one 60 mins. If you go to any university you can find a student to teach you probably around 30-40 RMB now, you just got to push on the syllabus a little, because they are not so professional.
My friend who teaches in Osaka said theres about 5000 english teachers out of work roaming around Japan now having “SayoNova” parties left right and centre. haha
November 5th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
when I was there in 2005-6, 100 RMB/hour was pretty standard for one-on-one instruction in english, with better teachers commanding up to 200/hour. One could make 8-10,000 a month freelancing. My chinese teacher was 40-50/hr but I didn’t have access to the universities (too far away).