A Canadian ESL teacher said the kindness of the Japanese people eased the shock of losing $2,000 in pay and being left unemployed in a foreign country.

Kate Goliasz was one of 660 Canadians who found themselves suddenly unemployed when the nation's largest private language school, Nova Group, shut down operations and stopped paying its employees in the fall.

The company that was founded in 1981 had 900 schools with 400,000 students, and employed about 7,000 foreign workers -- more than any other Japanese company.

Goliasz taught with Nova for about six weeks beginning in September, during which time she began to hear rumours that some teachers weren't being paid and the company was experiencing financial difficulties.

"I went into work around Sept. 10 ... about a week after that, we were hearing that the trainers were not getting paid and I was a little worried. I started saving my money, just in case and then we were supposed to be paid Oct. 15, and we weren't."

She began scrimping every penny, living on noodle soups, and was down to about $100 in her bank account before she flew home -- using her credit card to pay for the flight.

Despite her experience, Goliasz said her memories of Japan haven't been tarnished.

"It was pretty crazy. I loved it. I loved the people," she told CTV's Canada AM.

"They were so amazing. They were so nice. When Nova went down, I heard stories of people getting free food from their students, students offering teachers a place to stay. They were amazing about the whole Nova situation."

With the sudden flood of teachers looking for work, the Japanese ESL industry quickly became saturated with foreigners seeking employment. As a result, Goliasz said many of her colleagues travelled to South Korea looking for jobs.

Goliasz said she plans to do the same thing.

"Korea is the next option. A lot of my friends, the majority of my friends went to Korea and that's what I plan to do end of January," she said.

Nova's problems stem from an advertising scandal and rapid over-expansion that began four years ago. Problems worsened in June, after Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) imposed a six-month ban on the practice of signing students to long-term contracts.

The ban came after a Japanese court ruled Nova had lied about its services and cancellation policies when soliciting students. Their practices were similar to the methods North American gyms often use sign clients to long-term contracts.

The ban led to a sharp decline in revenue when many of the 400,000 students abruptly ended their enrolment. Facing a cash-crunch, Nova began delaying the payment of salaries to foreign teaching staff and Japanese staff.

Then a series of faxes were sent out by the company attributing the delays to clerical errors, and promising the money would be coming soon. However, it never arrived.

Goliasz said she has now heard that the Japanese government will pay out 80 per cent of the money owed to the teachers, but she is not confident the money will actually arrive.

Thirty Nova schools have been reopened by G. Communication, another Japanese company that operated languages schools and is serving as a sponsor to Nova.