GEOS
From Eikaiwa Wiki
GEOS (株式会社ジオス | Kabushiki Kaisha Jiosu) is one of the Big Five[1] private eikaiwa, or English conversation companies, in Japan.
GEOS, which stands for Global Education Opportunities and Services, was started in 1973 by Tsuneo Kusunoki. The first school was based in Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, also the location of one of the company's main registered offices. The company has regional head offices in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka.
GEOS has an overseas hiring office in Vancouver. The GEOS group also runs children-only schools called "Codomo Schools" (子供校) (Correctly transliterated as "Kodomo", "Codomo" is used in all GEOS company literature and may be spelled that way to borrow notoriety from Docomo, a cellphone network company) throughout Japan. The adult GEOS Schools have themselves taken on more classes for children. As of February 2007, GEOS had a total of around 500 "Codomo" and adult schools in Japan and over 55 schools [2]in countries outside of Japan.
The main language GEOS teaches in Japan and its overseas schools is English. Other languages taught at GEOS include, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and Korean. GEOS also teaches Japanese to foreigners living in Japan at their Kudan Japanese Culture, Research Center and Language Institute in Kudanshita, Tokyo[3]
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Accommodations
GEOS usually places teachers in Leo Palace apartments (a rental company that specializes in short term or monthly apartments), which is a monthly rental in all locations except Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Kyushu areas. This is because there aren't any Leo Palaces in those areas. Teachers don't sign any contract with relation to the rental, GEOS does and they simply subtract the rent from your pay. So if you quit GEOS, you don't have to worry about being stuck with a year long lease but you will also have no right to stay at that apartment either. Meaning, if you quit GEOS, you are now homeless. Also, the "GEOS stuff" (furnishings) is your responsibility as long as you are with the company. Some of it is very old, but they will not replace anything unless you really go after the manager about it. Some managers (usually the long-term ones) will help you out as much as they can. If you want to move out of a GEOS/Leo Palace apartment but plan to stay with the company, you will be responsible to pay a proportion of the un-returned shikikin (key money) equal to the number of months you stayed there divided by the number of months GEOS has held the contract.
Labor issues
An article in The Japan Times noted working conditions of Geos managers. In 1999, the Company was taken to court by 14 of its managers over unpaid overtime. At the time of the case, the main plaintiff said that she was working a 72-hour week under constant unmanageable pressure to increase sales at her school. Even though the managers won their suit, costing Geos 300 million yen in unpaid overtime, the media mostly ignored the case. In the same article, managers noted high staff turnover and long working hours. However, a spokeswoman for the company said that GEOS, and the language learning industry as a whole, provides women with a rare opportunities to begin business careers. [4]
The GEOS interview process is different than most eikaiwa companies, and is conducted over the course of 2 days.
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Business Contraction?
By March 2009, it would appear that like many other eikaiwa GEOS has had to reduce the number of schools in Japan to control costs. According to one poster in LJ Forums, "The big blue and yellow sign has been removed from the building and the 4th floor lights were out" at the Akashi location and there are rumors of other closures. [5]
References
- ↑ McEnglish for the masses The Japan Times. Feb. 24, 2004. Retrieved June 14, 2007
- ↑ Geos corporate site (Japanese)
- ↑ GEOS International Schools
- ↑ Barely managing Japan Times, July 6, 2004. Retrieved June 14, 2007
- ↑ http://www.letsjapan.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=256179&start=150
