Policies and Regulations

Policy 1: No price increases for existing clients.

Policy 2: No lesson is free, not even the first one.

If you would like to learn about me, we can do about a half an hour only. After that, you must pay for my time. Schools or special requests may be exempt.

Policy 3: Once we establish that you would like to have lessons with me, you will need to either buy coupons or pay on a lesson by normal lesson basis.

If you pay on a lesson by normal lesson basis, a second security payment will be necessary. The security payment will express your sincerity and solidify your commitment to the requested time-slot. This additional payment may not be applied to students who may wish to come only once or twice for some urgent need.

The reason for the security deposit and the loss of it is explained as follows:

At one point, I wanted to charge penalties for students who don’t call to cancel a lesson within a 24 or 48 hour time-frame, as most schools do, which would have encouraged some individuals to be more responsible and considerate of our relationship.

However, I have many a type of students with whom this couldn’t easily be applied: businesspersons on the run, children, students preparing for exams, unemployed, and the list is long enough. I have students who get sick, travel, are tied to more authoritative powers (e.g. governmental hierarchies, bosses, workers, spouses, children and the like).  In these regards, I don’t feel I can successfully charge a penalty without adding added pressures on my clients’ normal lifestyles. Therefore, I’ve done something more conducive toward your lifestyles and my own interests. I disregard penalties under most conditions, but that remains solely my discretion in making that call.

If students take the time to look at my schedule, they will notice I have enough on my plate and if they study it in even more depth, they will see that students’ schedules are consistently changing, which is usually based on their schedules, or my attempt to prioritize students based on economics.

I reserve your time-slot unless you are consistently changing it or our relationship becomes less than stable. Most of the time I can replace a student’s time-slot within a few minutes so your cancellations don’t usually bother me – besides that, I have plenty of administration tasks to not worry about untimely changes. However, I do ask all students to please let me know of any changes as soon as possible so my time and money isn't wantonly diverted.

To stress again, I reserve the right to keep the security deposit when an obvious lack of regard for my person and my interests has been established. This lack of regard will be determined by me only.

Below are two examples of such a scenario:

Example 1. If a student simply forgets about the lesson (group lesson participants need not call in, but I may call to verify attendance). Forgetting does happen from time to time - and even I have done it. (I have since tightened that problem by using the Google Calendar and by other means.) If I do it, a student is compensated, usually with the next lesson being free. If a student does it, that second payment is lost and he or she will have to repay it to keep the ’second-payment-upfront’ status if that person wants to continue. In this case, our relationship will continue without a hitch.  

Example 2. A real scenario: A student comes to me to have lessons. He’s satisfied, pays for that lesson, plans to pay on a lesson by lesson basis and we make the type of scheduling he wants. The next week he’s sick and cancels all the lessons with a promise that he’ll call when he gets better. He does call back and comes in. We have a lesson and then he’s sick again. He comes back and asks me how much he owes me for the last week’s cancellation and I tell him I won't charge him because I haven’t been charging anybody under similar circumstances. He compliments me in saying that I was a very correct person. Following that discussion, he decides that since he has a job interview lined up that we should postpone buying a book and concentrate on preparing him for that; Hence, I coached him and he successfully interviewed and landed the job.

The next scheduled lesson was Tuesday afternoon. Well, from the previous Thursday untill Monday night I didn't receive a sound from him. Then late Monday I received his call and at that time he said that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he got the job and the bad news was that he signed up for a regular English course in bank terminology (which he said I wasn’t able to teach, which isn’t true) and that he MAY call me after the course ends. On top of that, and although he normally attempted to speak English with me, on this occasions he acted like he had no knowledge of English and came out with full-blown Hungarian (normal speed, and expressions just as though he was speaking to a native). I find this condition to be absolutely rude. This behavior falls against what I believe to be rules of conduct and in such a case, the second payment would be forfeited.

So, unless common courteousy is broken, students shouldn’t worry about losing their fee.

Policy 4: Any student can join any group lesson despite the age group or language level. The lesson is taught at the level of the students who initially started the course or those who show up most frequently.

The 'anyone-can-come' policy is especially good for students who want to measure their level, need to socialize more, or are in an urgent need to build quickly for job or exam. It is also useful for teachers-in-training or others who are more advanced but would like giving instructions. Those students who are at different language levels than the average in the class learn a lot, although they are usually short-termers.

Policy 5: A group can be started at anytime with two people who buy coupons and fix a set time.

That's why the group lessons do not have a previously determined beginning nor an end unless students drop out. You can start it by bringing a partner or friend or I may be able to ask someone as well. Groups can be as high as 8 but are almost never larger than 4.