Quote:
Originally Posted by tenmins
Here is my experience of joining Nova English School back before they crashed.
I applied to a newspaper advertisement, had an interview here in Adelaide by staff that had flown in from Melbourne for the day to interview a bunch of people, was notified that I got the job within 2 weeks.
Then there was 2 months of preparation such as passport, a fair bit of paperwork sent to and from the Japanese Embassy in Melbourne to get the working visa, paperwork to and from the private recruitment company based in Melbourne to get plane tickets and accomodation sorted. I paid around $2000 Australian for this bit. This covered the air ticket, first few nights hotel accomodation, visa and first couple of weeks apartment rental.
Then 3 months after the initial interview I was on my way. When I landed in Kansai Airport staff from Nova greeted me and 4 other guys who arrived on the same plane, took us to the train, then another train, then another train (absolutely loved it) then to our hotel rooms.
The next day we had orientation which was quite fun and we also filled out Japanese forms to apply for bank accounts and travel insurance and some other admin stuff, then on the Shinkansen (yeah baby!) to the town in which I would work, Takamatsu in Kagawa prefecture.
More Nova staff met me at the other end and took me to my apartment, then next day off to another city on a fast train to have 3 days training, then started work around 1 week after I arrived in Japan.
I made a big effort to attend the free 2 hour Japanese class every Saturday morning at the "International Community Centre" with a fellow Aussie who had also just arrived in Takamatsu for over a year. By that time I could have a basic chat in Japanese and also find my way around easily and do basic everyday things such as shopping, doctor, banking etc...
Not sure if the English Schools still provide all these services for new arrivals these days but it was absolutely fantastic and no real stress at all, just busy, busy, party, busy, party, busy, busy, busy, party...
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It's not quite like that anymore, the English bubble burst after the tech bubble lol... the Lehman thing hit hard too