Discens Language Learning

Introduction

Learning a language requires time and effort. Discens Language Learning aims to make this process as pleasant and effective for each student by addressing their personal learning needs. Our Terms and Conditions of Service follow the same approach. Our Terms and Conditions of Service aim to be evenhanded, in accordance with Discens Language Learning’s philosophy of conducting its business in a fair manner for students and tutors. Tutors are instructed to fully comply with these terms and condition of service. At the same time, the tutors are asked to identify and communicate to the administration all unintended disadvantages of students and cases of hardship. Discens Language Learning encourages students to point out what is not working well and what could be done better. In the past, our administration always found a solution that was satisfactory for all concerned parties. 

Students are not trapped in long-term contracts. Tutors are enabled to dedicate their efforts to the students’ individual needs and wishes. There are no hidden charges, such as registration fees or fees for learning materials. 

Discens Language Learning’s philosophy is to be fair. Discens Language Learning sincerely hopes that its philosophy of fairness is evident in each and every of the provisions below. 

§1. Services provided

• Discens Language Learning offers:
• I)   Online self-study courses through its online teaching platform.
• II) Private lessons during which a tutor works exclusively with one student. The learning targets of the student determine the content of the private lessons.
• Discens Language Learning has the website www.discenslearning.com and can be reached via
  • E-mail: info@discenslearning.com
  • WhatsApp® : 0034 644 917 505

I.Online self-study courses

§2. Technical requirements

All the course material is permanently available on the platform. The student only needs an internet connection and an electronic device (computer, tablet, or smartphone) to access it.

§3. Lesson content and learning material

All the course material is available on Discens Language Learning‘s platform. Each lesson includes a video class, the PDF material, and a test questionnaire. Additionally, materials such as vocabulary lists are available in PDF and MP3 formats. At the end of the course, there is a quiz with general course content.

The lessons are progressive, but the students can work with the material as it suits them. However, we advise not to skip lessons, but at least watch the video. There is no deadline for completing the course.

Discens Language Learning also organizes webinars on a regular basis, lasting 40 minutes. The student can participate in webinars during the six months from the date of purchase of the course. The student must book a seat in the webinar through the course platform. Seats are limited.

The webinars are recorded and stored on the course platform for six months after the broadcast date so that students can watch them when it is convenient for them without having to register in advance.

§4. Registration on the platform and purchase of courses

On the Discens Language Learning website, after registering with a username and password and after having informed their name, email address and their country of residence, the student makes the payment on the same website. This payment allows unrestricted access to the content of the course lessons.

By purchasing one or more online Discens Language Learning courses, the student acquires a single-use license, so he cannot give it away or sell it. Also, due to the type of digital product, which is downloaded after purchase, no returns are accepted.

The payment can be made by credit or debit card, or PayPal.

The students have two payment methods. They can make a single payment, or they can pay in three installments, without interest. Payment in three installments can only be made by card, not PayPal.

If the student chooses to pay in three installments, they must be up to date with their payment. That is, the student has lifetime access to the course as long as they have made the corresponding payments. In case there are pending payments, the student will be notified by email with two additional reminder emails if necessary. The student has a period of seven calendar days to pay the amount due and, if they do not do so, their  account will be deleted from the teaching platform for non-payment. The student will not be able to continue the course. The can re-enroll if they want, but they will have to pay full price and start from scratch.

The student can benefit from discounts for the purchase of the course. If you have a discount coupon, simply enter the coupon code when prompted for that information during the course purchase process.

To find out how to obtain a discount for the purchase of the course, get in touch.

§5. Certificate of completion

If the student has passed all the quizzes of the course lessons and the final quiz, and wants a certificate of completion, it can download it from the personal account on the platform. The certificate communicates that the student has completed the course, but it is not equivalent to an official certificate such as DELE or CELPE-Bras. To obtain these certifications, the student needs to sit for the official exams.

II.Online private lessons

§6. Technical requirements

• Discens Language Learning conducts the private lessons primarily via video chat. Almost all students prefer to use Zoom® but, upon request, it is also possible to use Skype®. Only very exceptionally, if students or tutors have temporarily no other technical means, videocalls with WhatsApp® could be arranged instead.
• Lessons via video chat require that students have access to a desktop computer, a laptop or a tablet with a camera and a microphone, on which Zoom® is installed. It is not necessary to have a Zoom® user account to access online meetings. Headphones are not mandatory, but advisable. Furthermore, a sufficiently fast internet connection is needed (minimum 5Mb, but the ideal would be 10Mb or higher). The tutor will be connected through cable (Ethernet) and we advise students to do the same. The quality and velocity of an Ethernet connection is better and faster than wi-fi.
• The student needs to have Zoom® downloaded in his or her electronic device and a working e-mail address.
• Even though it is not mandatory, Discens Language Learning  recommends that students provide the tutor with their mobile phone numbers. This enables the tutors to send students a WhatsApp®  message as reminder in the case a student is not online on the scheduled time.

§7. Free 45-minute trial lesson

• Each new student can ask Discens Language Learning for a 45-minute trial lesson to get to know our learning approach and the personal tutor. This free session is of course free of charge with no strings attached. Thereafter, the student can decide either to just “walk away” or to learn the chosen foreign language with Discens Language Learning.
  • On the Discens Language Learning website, the person who is interested in the private lesson selects the date and time of their preference on the tutor’s calendar, informs their name and e-mail address, and instantly receives a confirmation e-mail. Changes on the reservation can be made on the confirmation email itself, on which is also disclosed the link for the Zoom® meeting, where the person must click when it is time for the trial lesson. This link also visible in the two reminder e-mails that the student receives 24 hours and 1 hour before the lesson.
  • Discens Language Learning will contact students only regarding the scheduling and realization of lessons. Students will not receive any advertising or newsletter. At Discens Language Learning, the data of the students will not be shared with any third parties and will only be used by their tutors, our administration and our accountant. Discens Language Learning asks students only for the data that are needed for addressing the students and for scheduling the students’ lessons.  For more information, refer to “Privacy Policy”.
• During this free session, the tutor tries to understand the new student’s needs and shows directly how they are addressed. In turn, new students can establish whether they like Discens Language Learning’s approach and whether there is a good chemistry between them and their tutor. 
• The free trial lesson does not oblige the student to any further learning sessions with Discens Language Learning. But if the students wants to start his (paid) lessons, the tutor will provide the student with the link to his calendar so that the student can book lessons anytime.

• Changes and cancellations can be made from the confirmation e-mail itself and the student will receive another e-mail notifying these changes. Students are kindly requested to make changes as far in advance as possible.
  • More details regarding the exchange of communications immediately before lessons and the technical requirements for on-line lessons are provided in “§14.Communication for conducting paid lessons” below and “§6.Technical requirements” above.

• If they want, students can skip the trial lesson. However, during the trial lesson, the tutor can assess the students’ language level to better prepare their lessons and to understand and to better address the students’ goals and needs.

§8. Offered lessons and blocks of lessons

• Discens Language Learning offers single lessons and blocks of 10 or 25 lessons. The duration of each lesson is 60 minutes.
• Continuity is a key to the success in learning a language. Therefore, Discens Language Learning advises students to take blocks of lessons instead of single lessons. 
• Moreover, because blocks of lessons are less work for our administration and accountant, Discens Language Learning can offer for free the last or the few last lessons from the respective block of lessons. The more lessons the students do purchase, the more they save.
• When you are about to finish your learning block, you can purchase a new one and plan with us a new sequence of lessons

§9. When to take lessons and how to schedule and combine them

• Discens Language Learning schedules lessons on weekdays from 09:00 until 20:00 (Central European Time). Knowing the busy schedules of our students, on a case by case basis, we could even provide lessons on Saturdays and Sundays.
• Students can schedule as many consecutive lessons as they wish. Some of our students do prefer an entire afternoon or evening of several consecutive lessons to benefit from the deeper immersion into the language. 
• Discens Language Learning recommends scheduling lessons in some sort of regular intervals. Daily lesson would in most cases be the best, but unfortunately are very often not feasible for the students. Most of the students have lessons once or twice a week. Either way, the students decide on the duration and the frequency that they are most comfortable with and that serves them best. 

§10. Planning and setting the student’s learning schedule

• After the trial lesson, the student must send an e-mail to info@discenslearning.com informing his/her personal data (name, address and national identification number) and how many lessons he/she wants. The reply e-mail will include the invoice and the link to the tutor’s calendar, in which the student can book the lessons instantly, using the same system that they already used for the trial lesson.

§11. Invoice for lessons

• The invoice shall state the amount due, date, the reference number of the invoice, as well as Discens Language Learning’s NIF (Spanish tax identification number), address, telephone number, e-mail, website and IBAN bank account. Furthermore, the invoice shall state also the VAT amount of zero and that the services of Discens Language Learning are exempt from VAT in accordance with the Spanish law [Ley 37/1992 de 28 de Diciembre del Impuesto sobre el Valor Añadido, Artículo 20 Uno 9º].
• The Spanish law [Real Decreto 1616/2012 de 30 de Noviembre que Regula la Obligación de Facturación, Artículo 6, Apartado 5º]  requires  that Discens Language Learning’s invoices state also the student’s name, address and national identity number (for example, the German Personalausweisnummer). 

§12. Paying for lessons

• Discens Language Learning requires the payment to be received prior to the lessons.
• The students can pay with IBAN bank transfer. IBAN bank transfers within the EU require between 2 to 3 bank working days. The payment can also be made through PayPal®, which is effective instantly.
• Students are asked that the purpose of the payment is clearly identified in the IBAN bank transfer, preferably with the student’s name and the reference number of the invoice sent by Discens Language Learning’s. 
• Discens Language Learning issuing the invoice and the student paying the amount due is considered to constitute a concluded contract. Discens Language Learning is obliged and committed to provide the lessons according to the agreed final schedule. 

§13. Changes and cancellations 

• The student can cancel or reschedule a lesson free of charge up until48 hours before its start, from the confirmation e-mail itself. This means that the student has already paid for this lesson, has the right to it and will not have to pay any extra fee for the rescheduling.
  • If the student reschedules or cancels a lesson less than 48 hours prior to the scheduled start of it or does not show up on Zoom® at the agreed time (see “§14. Communication for conducting paid sessions”), the lesson is considered missed. The student can catch up on the contents of this missed lesson at a later date, but the student will need to purchase this lesson and schedule it with the tutor. 
• If the tutor needs to cancel a lesson, the student will be notified by e-mail and the cancelled lesson shall be rescheduled to another date and time. This means that the student has already paid for this lesson, has the right to it and will not have to pay any extra fee for the rescheduling. 

§14. Communication for conducting paid lessons 

• The student will receive an e-mail as a reminder 24 hours before the paid lesson. If the student provided a mobile phone number when booking the lesson, there will be also a reminder SMS two hours before the Zoom® meeting. To access it, the student only needs to click on the Zoom® link in the lesson confirmation or reminder e-mail. The teacher will be online at Zoom® and will allow the student to access the meeting room. 
• If the student is not online and/or does not respond, the tutor tries to contact the student repeatedly, also via e-mail, Zoom® chat messages and/or WhatsApp® messages.
• After having waited for 20 minutes after the scheduled start of the lesson without any reply from the student, the tutor calls off the lesson due to the student’s non-attendance and informs the student via e-mail accordingly. This lesson missed by the student is non-refundable and will not be rescheduled free of charge (see “§13. Cancellations”). 
• The student can show up until 20 minutes late without having the lesson cancelled because of this delay, but we kindly ask students to be on time for their lessons. The minutes that they have lost by not being on time cannot be added as an extension to the lesson, that needs to finish on the agreed time, because it would be unjustifiable to make the next student wait because of the delay of the previous one. 

§15. Technical difficulties

• Discens Language Learning’s tutors are equipped with all technical means needed for the Zoom® video chat. However, last-minute technical problems (software and/or internet connection fails, no electricity…) are possible. If due to such unfortunate and unforeseen reasons the tutor is not able to give the lesson via Zoom® or Skype®, he or she will notify the student via WhatsApp®. If the student is the one experiencing technical difficulties, he or she shall also use WhatsApp® to inform the tutor. 
• If there are no other technical means, and to avoid the inconvenience of suspending the lesson on such short notice, and if the student agrees, the lesson can be exceptionally conducted via WhatsApp® videocall. 
• If the WhatsApp® videocall is not technically possible, or if the student does not agree with it, and the technical difficulty is happening on the side of the tutor, the lesson will be rescheduled to another date and time free of charge for the student.

§16. Contents of lessons and learning materials

• The content of Discens Language Learning’s lessons is personalized to address each student’s particular needs and preferences.
• Discens Language Learning works on the base of didactic sequences that are thematically organized and that include communicative structures, grammar and vocabulary, designed to practice the four linguistic skills of the student (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Discens Language Learning’s students benefit not only from the online private but also from our learning materials, which were especially developed and crafted by our tutors based on the guidelines offered by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The learning materials are copyright-protected and are not to be commercialized.

§17. Certificate of attendance

• Discens Language Learning issues certificates of attendance stating the level students have reached and the number of lessons taken. Please note, that these attendance certificates, as the attendance certificates from all other language schools, do not accredit the students’ competence level. 
• In order to have a competence level certification, students must pass an official exam such as TELC, DELE, SIELE, CELPE-Bras, etc. Discens Language Learning can prepare students to take these tests, if they have such academic goals.
• The tutors at Discens Language Learning are certified trainers for the TELC and DELE exams and are happy to prepare the students for these exams.

§18. Reimbursing unused lessons

• For practical and pedagogical reasons, lessons cannot be transferred to another person.
• Not taken but paid lessons, also from blocks of 10 or 25 lessons, will be reimbursed upon the student’s request. The free bonus lessons from blocks of lessons are by definition not paid and therefore cannot be reimbursed. The reimbursement is calculated by our accountant, based on Discens Language Learning’s price list, in the most favorable way for the student.
• Regrettably, we have to pass on to our students the administrative fee of €15,25, which we are charged by our accountant for processing such reimbursements and transferring the money. 
• All reimbursements are made by default to the same IBAN bank account that was used when paying for the lessons. 

§19. Switching from single lessons to blocks of lessons

• Discens Language Learning is fully aware that students are cautious before committing themselves to a – for them – new language school on a long-term basis. The result is that new students tend to purchase initially single lessons and purchase blocks of lessons only later.
• Discens Language Learning takes into account this natural and very understandable initial reticence and helps students who would like to switch from single lessons to a block of lessons.
• Therefore, a student can purchase a block of lessons and Discens Language Learning considers that up to 5 immediately previously taken individual lessons do become retroactively part of the purchased block of lessons. The result is that the cost of the purchased block is reduced by the amount already paid for the up to 5 immediately previously taken individual lessons, and the student has the same right to the last free lesson in the case of a 10-lesson block and to the last three free lessons in the case of a 25-lesson block.
• In view of the related administrative burden, Discens Language Learning considers that – by definition – each student has to overcome such initial reticence only once. 

§20. Price list

• The current prices for the services of Discens Language Learning are published on the website.
• All services already paid in full but not rendered yet before a price change shall be settled at the initial, lower prices; price increases are not applicable.

§21. Modification of these terms and conditions of service

• All changes and modification of the above terms and conditions of service shall be made in written form only.