Policies & Procedures
Policies and Procedures
Last updated March 2023
Scheduling Policy
Please fill out our participant inquiry form to get started at https://www.launchin.in/participant-inquiry-form.
We provide flexible scheduling that offers year-round access to learning Hindi, Urdu, or Punjabi. Sessions are offered Monday-Friday. The earliest sessions begin at 9:10 AM (India, IST time). To maintain a regular schedule, participants must take at least 10 hours a week over at least 4 days a week. For best results we suggest committing to 20 hours per week. Our rates are structured based on the number of hours you take per week. (For more information on rates: launchin.in/services-pricing). Once you determine the number of hours you would like to take per week, we will give you the scheduling blocks available.
If you’re still not sure if Launch India is the right fit for you, feel free to direct your questions to scheduling@launchin.in.
We have new sessions starting all the time and will work with you to get you started as soon as our schedule allows.
30 Day Notice Required for Scheduling Changes, Requesting Days OFF, or to Discontinue Sessions
Once we have worked with you to set up a session time, we will continue to schedule you during this block from month to month until you give us 30 day notice of when you would like your last day to be. Please send all scheduling requests now by email to scheduling@launchin.in. To keep staffing needs equivalent to numbers of clients we have, 30 days notice is required when you want to discontinue sessions or reduce your hours. This allows us time to rearrange schedules and plan for staffing needs. If you suddenly stop, you will be charged 50% of sessions for next 30 days. Please keep this policy in mind. We need 30 days notice when you reduce your hours. If you suddenly choose not to continue, you will be charged 50% what you committed.
Launch India will be closed in 2023 on the following dates:
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January 26 for Republic Day
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March 8 for Holi
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April 24 OFF for Eid
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June 29 OFF for Eid
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August 15 OFF for Indian Independence Day
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October 2 OFF for Gandhi Jayanti
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November 10 OFF for Diwali
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December 25th OFF for Christmas
Please send any additional days you need OFF by email to scheduling@launchin.in 30 days in advance.
You will be charged 50% the cost of your sessions if you give notice 48 hours in advance. You will be charged the full cost of your sessions if you give less than 48 hours notice. For emergencies or last minute scheduling cancellations, send a message to your personal Launch Chat so that your Nurturer can be informed immediately.
Once you have given us notice of your last day of class with us (30 days in advance), you will no longer be issued a 50% refund for language sessions cancelled 48 hours in advance. This means that if you register with us for an amount of time 30 days or less, you will pay full cost for your registered classes in that time regardless of any classes you cancel. No refunds will be issued.
If you have a request for a specific Nurturer, we will do our best to accommodate your request. However, we cannot guarantee that you will be with any certain person and can change you to new people based on what is best for your learning goals and works for our schedule. We will notify you when we are changing you to a new Nurturer. We will also send you a Nurturer evaluation at this point in time. Please fill that out as your feedback helps us provide timely training and encouragement for our staff to ensure you continue to receive the best experience possible.
If you request OFF more than 10 consecutive days (with 30 day advance notice), we will not be able to guarantee to hold your spot for you. We do not have a semester system but are always getting new people. You forfeit your spot for someone else to come in if you are OFF more than 10 days. We can try to fit you in your old schedule, but it may not be available. We will show you what is available.
You can view your sessions here at: https://launchindiaschedule.as.me/ by clicking on the "log in" link in the top right corner and entering your acuity login info you created in the registration process. See the instructions below on how to register.
Registering with Acuity
When you register with us at Launch, you will be sent a link to register for an acuity account. The process for registering an account is as follows:
You can register an account via our weblink https://launchindiaschedule.as.me/ Once at the Launch India page via your browser please select a “Register for an account” booking. You will be prompted for an appointment time. Pick the time listed as this is arbitrary in nature (you are not actually scheduling anything at this time, but just need to choose something in order to complete the registration process) and “continue”. You will then be prompted to input your name, phone (optional) , and email. Be sure the email you choose is the one you would like to receive any notifications about classes. Click the “Complete appointment” button and you will see a screen like this:
On this confirmation page you will see a small button reading “Register for an account”. Please click this button located directly below the "Add to iCal/outlook" button. It will then prompt you to finish the registration with Acuity. You can also use the QR code to download the app. Be sure to use the same info on the app as you made your account under. After this is done we will assign all the language sessions we generate to this account for you to view as you wish.
Rescheduling Language Sessions
If you are unable to attend your regular session time, but want to try to make up those hours, you may do so as we have availability in our Flex Schedule as long as you schedule this make up session within 2 weeks of your missed session. You may no longer reschedule your language sessions directly with your Nurturer as their schedules will be full within the normal India working hours.
Flex Schedule
Weekly, we will update Acuity and post extra hours available from our Nurturers. These will be on a first come, first serve basis. You may use these hours to reschedule sessions you needed to cancel. We cannot guarantee that your current Nurturer will have time on our Flex Schedule each week, so you may need to schedule your makeup session with a different Nurturer.
Participants who have completed 600 hours with us (at least 100 hours into Phase 4) are eligible for our Flex Program. This means they can sign up to take classes less than 10 hours/week using the availability posted weekly on the Flex schedule.
Overtime Scheduling Option
As much as possible, we want to encourage participants to take classes within the window of Mondays-Fridays 9am-6pm IST. While most of our clients are now taking classes from countries nearer to India, we still want to be able to provide our services to those on the other side of the world. Our overtime block will be offered online to serve those clients especially who are eager to connect but who would struggle to do so in the regular India work day. This time block will be offered Monday-Friday from 6pm-10pm IST at an additional 18% of our normal rates. While we recommend taking at least 4 days/week and 10 hours/week minimum, we will not enforce this minimum if you are taking classes in the overtime block.
Box.com
Launch India will be moving all of our digital resources and recordings over to a program called Box.com. These resources will now only be available to students actively taking regular language sessions with us or subscribed to our Box resources. We will offer non-active clients continued access to these resources for a subscription fee.
Partners
Taking lessons with a buddy keeps sessions affordable and offers camaraderie. In general, we have seen that participants who continue in a pair or with a group go farther in their language learning journey. We cannot always guarantee you a partner, but let us know if you are interested and we can set up trial classes with other learners near your level. With our scheduling blocks, it is possible with a partner to still have one day a week apart which can be helpful to focus on your individual areas of improvement needed. If your partner requests off a scheduled off (30 days notice), you can still take class that day, but it will be charged at the individual rate. We recommend continuing in this circumstance so you can focus on your personal development. If your partner cancels sessions with less than 30 days notice, they will pay 50% and you will pay the regular group or pair rate.
Payment
We are hoping to move to a new payment and schedule tracking system in 2023 that will work more smoothly with our new cancelation policies. Until then, you will receive your invoices when you register for the next 30 days. If you cancel classes according to the policies above (48+ hours notice), your 50% refund will be reflected on the next 30 day invoice. Please pay your invoice immediately.
Recommended Hours
1500 hours is recommended to become familiar with 10,000 words. This is the threshold for being able to understand nearly everything around you. We suggest a weekly schedule of 20 hours/week. This is the most efficient pace at which you can complete 1500 hours in less than 2 years.
We do our best to keep track of where you are in the program and will send a monthly progress report with comments on when you should move to the next phase. But if you feel that you are ready to move on to the next phase prior to these dates, please contact our coaches (Mary, Brooke or Melissa) via your Launch India Signal chat (“<your name> Launch Chat”). We will send you the guide for the next phase and schedule a time to meet for a phase overview.
GPA is broken into the following phases/hours:
Phase 1: 100 hours
Phase 2A: 50 hours, 2B: 75 hours, 2C: 25 hours
Phase 3A: 100 hours, 3B: 75 hours, 3C: 75 hours
Phase 4: 500 hours
Phase 5: 500 hours
Total: 1500 hours
Phase 6: Lifelong Learning
Observations and Nurturer Feedback Forms
We will send you a feedback form whenever you switch to a new Nurturer. Your feedback is so valuable to us, so please fill out the evaluation for your Nurturer so that we can continue to provide you with the best service possible. Your feedback will remain anonymous and used to encourage Nurturers in their strengths and inform how we work with them in trainings and personal development on areas of weakness.
Your classes will also be observed occasionally so that we can make sure you are receiving the best service possible.
Breaks
For every hour of class you are taking, we give you and your Nurturer a 5 minute break. Please try to take these breaks all together as it allows your Nurturer to do anything they need to do so that they can commit their full attention to you in each session.
Pricing and Loyalty Program
Our regular hourly rates are determined by number of hours per week and grouping. We are excited to offer an additional discount to clients the longer they stay with us. At 600 hours (100 hours into Phase 4), you will receive a discount of $1/hour OFF of our listed hourly rates. At 1000 hours (the start of Phase 5), you will receive a discount of $2/hour OFF of our listed hourly rates.
We love to serve driven people. Your sessions with us will never be cancelled. We will always have staff on standby to substitute your class if your Nurturer needs to cancel. If you have time-bound goals, you can rest assured our staff will be there. Your progress is our highest priority.
Employee Relations
Our company has a no conversion policy. While discussing religious and spiritual topics, praying, and sharing about your life, beliefs, passions, and experiences in the local language is encouraged, we ask that GPs and employees not attempt to convert each other.
Mentor/Nurturers may not ask GPs for money or loans directly. We prohibit the lending of money of any amount as it tends to lead to negative results. We strive to care well for our staff financially. If a Mentor/Nurturer asks you for money, please consult the Launch India Management Team before responding.
We invest a lot of training in our Nurturers to help them develop to be the most effective for GP growth as possible and we strive to care well for all employees and freelancers who work for Launch India. GPs registering for sessions with Launch India agree to NOT hire Launch India employees or freelancers (both current or former staff) to facilitate language sessions outside of Launch India, regardless of whether I am a Launch India participant as this undermines our ability to care for all staff well.
GPA
Nurturers/Mentors at our program are trained in the Growing Participator Approach (GPA). While our Nurturers are all experienced in using this approach, it is designed to be led by the Growing Participators (GPs). We provide a general GPA orientation, orientations for each specific phase, and individual coaching along the way. Along with this, Growing Participators (GPs) are expected to familiarize themselves with the approach by reading and following the phase specific guides.
Launch India has developed materials specific to our GPA program in North India that are only to be shared with Launch India growing participators. Please do not share the resources given to you with anyone else without permission.
We use primarily a listening and speaking approach to language learning, and consider this foundational. We do also highly recommend learning to read the Hindi, Urdu, or Punjabi script and have resources to help you in that. We highly advise against translating to or from English or writing down English-letter transliterations of the words you are learning as it limits your full understanding of a word or phrase and can lead you to bad pronunciation. Please be willing to work with us in this method, but we will try to tailor your learning environment to what suits you best. Please stick to the activities that fit your phase so you can experience the most language growth. If you have difficulty understanding how to do an activity or if your Nurturer is not following the GPA, please contact Mary/Brooke/Melissa or another Language Learning Advisor (LLA). They will sit in on your session and work through difficulties.
