China's English bubble almost ready to pop
- Source: Global Times
- [22:41 March 03 2010]
- Comments
During the economic boom of the 1980s, Japan also went through an English learning boom similar to that of present-day China. Across the country English training centers sprouted up and the industry thrived. It seemed a guaranteed way to make money in Japan – for about a decade.
In 1996 the first major English company collapsed. The American Club English School, much like Kai En, had been delaying employee payments for months and eventually the owner fled the country, leaving the employees and students hung out to dry.
In the late 1990s, Japan's English schools marketed and competed aggressively with one-another over share in an industry that was sinking fast. Many managed to stay afloat – for about another decade. In 2006, the 10th largest English company in Japan, Nippon NCB Co., collapsed under circumstances almost identical to Kai En and the American Club.
Then in 2007, Nova, the largest English school in Japan, with 900 schools and 15,000 employees throughout the country, went belly-up. Upon the collapse, many of the teachers (who had lost months of withheld wages) flooded to the remaining English schools. In one case, 400 foreign teachers applied for one job opening at another company.
While there are differences between Japan's and China's markets, the similarities are hard to ignore. Much like in present-day China, Japanese businessmen of the 1980s and 1990s thought English was a “can't-lose” industry and foreign teachers enjoyed plentiful, secure and high-paying jobs, often with no real qualifications.
Though China's English industry still appears to be thriving, the collapse of Kai En and the ever-growing competition in the market could be the warning signs that China is following the Japanese trend. Many economists have already observed that the industry is forming a bubble. It's just a matter of how soon that bubble will burst.
The author is a teacher and freelance writer in Nanjing. globaltimesopinion@yahoo. com
