Seriously... how long is an hour?
Most students book courses by time: 15 hours per week, three hours of individual lessons etc etc. But how long is that hour you pay for?
Be careful... be very careful.
Most schools are a little naughty and confuse the people who are booking the courses.
There are two techniques they use to make the course
seem longer and give you less... and most schools use both techniques!
1) The
20 Lessons Per Week Course
This is the trick schools use to make you think that you are buying a longer course. 20 lesson courses are usually 15 hours per week and all the school has done is pretend a lesson is 45 minutes (20 x 45 = 900 minutes = 15 hours). Of course, 20 makes you think you are buying more than 15.
2) The
15 Hour Per Week Course
Be careful here too! You need to check if 15 hours really is 15 hours. If the timetable is 0900 to 1200 you would imagine three hours per day of classes... but then many schools put a break in the middle (sometimes half an hour!) and you only end up studying for 12.5 hours per week.
I know some schools where a one hour 1-to-1 lesson is only 50 minutes! Now, that's confusing.
So... when you compare the prices of one school to another it is very difficult to know what you will really get for your money.
At Language in London, when we say a course is 15 hours we mean 15 hours and you study with your teacher for 15 hours!
It's clear, it's simple and it's honest.
Stuart Rubenstein
Principal
