Policies & Procedures

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.

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Registering for language sessions with Launch India means that I will automatically be subscribed to receive occasional email updates and offers from Launch India. I can unsubscribe from these emails at any time. 

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Rescheduling Language Sessions

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We recognize that everyone has unexpected things come up in their lives. Living or engaging cross-culturally amplifies the frequency of these changes. While it may feel like your crazy schedule is unique, the reality is that all our our clients and staff are dealing with the regular, unexpected changes. Extenuating circumstances is the norm for people living overseas and not the exception. 

 

Consistency is so helpful for language learning, so we appreciate your desire to reschedule your sessions rather than cancel even in the midst of navigating crazy schedules. We are happy to support you in that as long as we have availability! But please understand that we have limits to how much we can offer as we also are trying to navigate the pace of life here ourselves, while protecting our staff with sustainable policies.

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You are not allowed to reschedule a language session that you cancelled with less than 48 hours notice. 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 on Signal so that our management team may inform your Nurturer immediately. 

 

If you discover and notify us 48+ hours in advance that 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 (the functions of this Flex schedule are still being developed and will be announced soon) 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, but must always go through our scheduling team. 

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To do so, please send an email to scheduling@launchin.in indicating the date and time of the session you are unable to attend and would like to reschedule. We will then offer you dates and times that we have available within two weeks of your reschedule request.  Because of the way we do contracts with our full time employees and part time consultant Nurturers, you will likely not be with the same Nurturer if you request to reschedule and may not have your rescheduled session at your normal time. We will do our best to work with you to find a time to reschedule. If you are unable to accept any of our openings within two weeks of your reschedule request, then this class will be considered a pre-cancelled class by you and you will receive a 50% refund for the time. 

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Flex Schedule​

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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. 

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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. 

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Overtime Scheduling Option

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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. 

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Box.com

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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. 

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Partners

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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. 

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Payment

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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. 

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Recommended Hours

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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. 

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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:

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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

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Observations and Nurturer Feedback Forms

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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.

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Your classes will also be observed occasionally so that we can make sure you are receiving the best service possible.

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Breaks

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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.

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Pricing and Loyalty Program

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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. 

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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.

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Employee Relations

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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.

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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.

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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 consultants/freelancers (both current or former staff) to facilitate language sessions outside of Launch India, regardless of whether you are a Launch India participant as this undermines our ability to care for all staff well. 

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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. 

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