About this FAQ section

The questions below have grown organically from real conversations, experiences, and student feedback over the time that Elucidated English has been in operation. They exist to offer clarity, transparency, and peace of mind before you book a lesson.

If you have a question that isn’t covered here, you’re warmly invited to email admin@elucidatedenglish.com, or complete the contact form below. I’ll be happy to assist.

Elucidated English uses PayFast and Stitch Express because both are trusted, fully encrypted South African payment gateways that meet high security and compliance standards.

Using these gateways allows lesson prices to remain as affordable as possible, as their transaction fees are significantly lower than many international payment providers.

Both PayFast and Stitch Express accept international debit and credit cards, and Stitch Express additionally supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, offering flexible options for both local and international students.

If a student strongly prefers not to use either PayFast or Stitch Express, they may add their selected lessons to the cart and email admin@elucidatedenglish.com. A personalised PayPal payment link can then be generated. Please note, however, that PayPal payments are discouraged due to their considerably higher transaction fees, which Elucidated English cannot reasonably absorb while keeping lesson prices fair.

Elucidated English is not registered for VAT because it does not currently meet the compulsory VAT registration threshold as stipulated by the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

In accordance with South African tax legislation, VAT registration is only required once a business exceeds the prescribed annual turnover threshold. As Elucidated English operates below this threshold, VAT is neither charged nor applicable to lesson prices at this time.

Lessons must be booked at least 12 hours in advance.
This ensures adequate preparation time and allows lesson materials and scheduling to remain accurate and reliable for all students.

Elucidated English is entirely independently run by a single English teacher with over eight years of online teaching experience.

Uniquely, this teacher was not a native English speaker. Afrikaans was his first language until he was required to switch to English as his primary language midway through high school, at the age of 16. This lived experience gives Elucidated English a deep understanding of the real challenges adult learners face when acquiring English, both academically and emotionally.

Yes.
All lesson materials are fully included in the lesson price, at no additional cost.

Group lessons provide:

  • A more cost-effective way to learn English

  • Exposure to natural conversation with other learners

  • Opportunities to practise listening, speaking, and turn-taking

  • Structured lessons with pre-selected topics and materials

  • A supportive, adult-focused learning environment

Group sizes are intentionally kept small to ensure meaningful participation.

Private lessons offer:

  • Fully personalised lesson content

  • Flexible topic selection based on your goals

  • Focused attention on your specific language gaps

  • Tailored feedback and pacing

  • A confidential, one-on-one learning environment

Private lessons are ideal for students with specific professional, academic, or personal language objectives.

Elucidated English originally offered 50-minute lessons. However, due to the significant administrative workload handled by the sole teacher and operator, a 45-minute structure allows lessons to remain sustainable without compromising quality.

Following this adjustment, lesson prices were also reduced, ensuring continued value for students while maintaining a high standard of instruction.

HearSay Learn is Elucidated English’s supplementary listening and comprehension initiative, designed to support students outside of live lessons.

It focuses on:

  • Realistic spoken English

  • Clear pronunciation and natural rhythm

  • Listening comprehension for everyday and professional contexts

HearSay Learn materials may include short audio dialogues, listening challenges, or guided comprehension tasks that reinforce lesson content and encourage independent practice.

After successful payment:

  • All Zoom Workplace lesson access links will be available in your personal student profile

  • Group lesson materials can be downloaded immediately

  • Private lesson students can select their own lesson materials after booking

This system ensures that all lesson information, materials, and access links are centralised and easy to manage.

Yes.
However, at present, extreme scaling is not a priority. The current focus is on quality, consistency, and maintaining a strong learning experience before expanding the teaching team.

Yes. Elucidated English is active on:

  • Facebook

  • LinkedIn

  • YouTube

Promotional discount coupons may be shared on these platforms to attract new students. Unless expressly stated otherwise, all promotional discounts are also available to existing students.

Elucidated English is designed specifically for adult learners.

Because lessons are delivered via Zoom Workplace, Elucidated English must comply with Zoom’s age-related terms of use. As a result, learners must meet the minimum age requirements imposed by Zoom Workplace in order to participate in lessons.

This ensures a safe, professional, and legally compliant learning environment for both students and the teacher.

To create a standard, independent Zoom account (including those for Zoom Workplace), a user must be at least 16 years old. However, Zoom for Education plans allow younger users (ages 3 and up) to participate through school-provisioned accounts managed by an administrator who has obtained parental consent. 

Students are expected to enter the Zoom Workplace lesson room within 5 minutes of the scheduled lesson start time.

Arriving later than this may result in reduced lesson time or the lesson being marked as missed, depending on circumstances and prior communication.

Elucidated English does not operate on a refund-based model for missed lessons.

That said, if a strong, well-established working relationship exists between the student and the teacher, and a missed lesson is clearly outside of the student’s normal behaviour, a once-off reschedule may be accommodated at the teacher’s discretion.

Please note:

  • Reschedules are not guaranteed

  • Ongoing or repeated reschedule requests will not be entertained

  • Lessons missed without communication are generally considered forfeited

This policy exists to ensure fairness, consistency, and sustainability.

For Group Lessons, Elucidated English requires cameras to be switched on and in working order. This supports group interaction, engagement, and a respectful learning environment.

For Private Lessons, students may communicate their discomfort with camera use to the teacher in advance. In such cases, it is entirely at the teacher’s discretion whether the lesson proceeds.

Please note that the same courtesy applies both ways:
If a student chooses not to use their camera during a Private Lesson, the teacher has the same right to keep their camera off.

Elucidated English welcomes constructive feedback and thoughtful suggestions on how to improve the service.

That said, please be mindful that Elucidated English will not cater to every individual preference. It is a focused, independently run platform that prioritises clarity, structure, and sustainability.

If your expectations or preferences fundamentally conflict with how Elucidated English operates, you are warmly encouraged to seek alternative English tutoring options elsewhere.

The Elucidated English website includes a small circular blue accessibility tool in the bottom-right corner of the screen. This tool is designed to support students with visual sensitivities or specific accessibility needs.

Additionally:

  • Group and Private lessons now appear side-by-side per day to allow mixed bookings in a single flow

  • Lesson images are designed to give students a quick visual overview of Group Lesson topics

If the images feel distracting, you may use the accessibility tool to convert all images to grayscale, reducing visual intensity.

Elucidated English provides an on-site accessibility tool, located in the bottom-right corner of the website, to assist students with visual needs.

Using this tool, you can:

  • Increase text size

  • Remove images

  • Remove colours from images

  • Switch to a high-contrast mode (dark background with light text)

These options are intended to help students tailor the website to their own visual comfort.

Jumping between CEFR levels is entirely acceptable in Private Lessons, as the teacher can adapt pacing, explanations, and vocabulary depth to suit the learner.

While not expressly forbidden in Group Lessons, Elucidated English strongly discourages booking Group Lessons at a significantly higher CEFR level if it impedes the enjoyment or progress of other students.

Please consider that other learners have committed:

  • Financially

  • Time-wise

  • Mentally, to learning at their stated CEFR level

Respecting the group’s learning balance helps maintain a productive and supportive environment for everyone.

Elucidated English is committed to creating a learning environment where all students feel safe, respected, and able to participate comfortably, in both Private and Group Lessons.

In line with this commitment:

  • Students are asked to be dressed modestly and appropriately during lessons. This guideline exists purely as a safeguarding measure, as Group Lessons may include students from diverse cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds.

  • Students are expected to be mindful of language use, particularly regarding excessive or unnecessary profanity, in both Group and Private Lessons.

  • In Private Lessons, students are generally free to express personal views, opinions, and lived experiences, depending on the established working relationship between the student and the teacher.

  • In Group Lessons, sharing perspectives and lived experiences is absolutely welcome. However, students are asked not to attempt to persuade others to adopt a particular viewpoint or belief. Each participant brings their own background and experiences, and respectful coexistence is essential to group learning.

Elucidated English values open discussion, curiosity, and respectful exchange, while maintaining boundaries that protect the comfort and dignity of everyone involved.

Absolutely.

When booking a lesson, you will see an “Add a note” tick box on the final checkout page. This allows you to leave a short instructional note for your teacher.
For example: “I would like this lesson to focus purely on English conversation.”

Conversation-focused lessons are perfectly acceptable and can be adapted to suit your comfort level and speaking goals.

Elucidated English is an independently operated company with limited financial resources at present.

At this stage, the focus is on delivering high-quality lessons rather than investing in multilingual website infrastructure or translation software plugins. As the student base grows and finances allow, Elucidated English intends to expand accessibility options, including translated website content.

Yes, absolutely.

Elucidated English understands that language learning involves moments of uncertainty and forgetting. Using a translating tool is permitted when needed.

That said, a skilled teacher may encourage you to describe the word you are struggling to recall, rather than translating it immediately. This is a natural communication strategy and mirrors how many people speak when they momentarily go blank.

Additionally:

  • Describing a missing word gives you extra speaking practice

  • Searching for a synonym or antonym helps expand vocabulary

  • These strategies strengthen real-world communication skills

All approaches are welcomed as part of the learning process.

When Elucidated English first began operating, student interests and suggested topics played a major role in shaping lesson materials.

While students are still encouraged to share ideas and topic preferences, Elucidated English cannot guarantee that lesson materials will be created exclusively according to the demands or preferences of individual students.

The platform operates on a structured materials system to ensure quality, consistency, and sustainability across lessons.

Yes, absolutely.

HearSay Learn is an optional listening-support tool included within some Elucidated English lesson materials. While Elucidated English is an official partner of HearSay Learn and earns a small commission when students choose to sign up, use of the platform is entirely optional.

Listening to the short audio dialogues is free, but not required. If you are not comfortable using WhatsApp to access the audio, you may simply skip this section.

Skipping HearSay Learn:

  • Does not interrupt the flow of the lesson

  • Does not limit your ability to complete the remaining activities

  • Does not disadvantage you in the lesson

Think of HearSay Learn as an additional listening and accent-recognition tool rather than a compulsory component.

For layout and clarity purposes, all lesson times on the Booking Page are displayed in Standard South African Time (SAST).

However, when you click on an individual lesson’s image, the lesson description will automatically display the time converted to your own local time zone, clearly indicated by the line:

“LESSON TIME IN YOUR TIMEZONE”

This allows you to confirm the exact local time of a lesson before adding it to your basket.

No.

If you already know the time difference between your local time zone and South Africa’s time zone (which remains consistent), you may simply click multiple “Add to basket” buttons and complete your booking in one flow.

In the future, lesson titles will reflect local time zones more directly. At present, however, the software required to implement this at scale is financially beyond the reach of Elucidated English. The current system strikes a balance between accuracy, usability, and affordability.

To get the most out of your lessons, we recommend:

  • A stable internet connection

  • A laptop, desktop computer, or tablet (a phone is possible but not ideal)

  • Headphones or earphones to reduce echo

  • A quiet, distraction-free space where you feel comfortable speaking

A camera and microphone in working order are important, especially for Group Lessons, where visibility and engagement support interaction and classroom dynamics.

Yes, you may book lessons back-to-back if suitable lesson times are available.

Please note that the teacher may occasionally require short breaks between lessons for administrative work, preparation, or comfort. With that in mind, we have lowered the lesson time to ×45 minutes, to allow a ×15 minute break for the teacher between lessons. Please be mindful with regards to ending the lesson at the appropriate time.

If a lesson is scheduled on a public holiday (either in South Africa or the student’s country), lessons will continue as normal unless otherwise communicated in advance.

If the teacher is unavailable due to a public holiday, students will be notified ahead of time and an alternative arrangement may be offered where possible.

Internet interruptions can happen from time to time.

If the student’s internet connection fails, the lesson will generally continue to count toward the scheduled time. In cases where the issue is clearly unusual or outside of the student’s control, accommodation may be made at the teacher’s discretion.

If the teacher experiences a connection failure, the lesson will be rescheduled or the lost time will be addressed fairly.

Progress in English depends on a number of factors, including:

  • Lesson frequency

  • Personal practice outside of lessons

  • Openness to feedback

  • Confidence and willingness to make mistakes

Language learning is a cumulative process, not an instant one. Many students begin noticing improvements in clarity, confidence, and fluency over time as consistent effort builds momentum.

Preparation is encouraged but not required.

Some students like to review vocabulary, think about topics, or bring speaking ideas. Others prefer to arrive and build skills naturally during the lesson.

Both approaches are welcome.

The most important preparation is simply to arrive on time, present, and ready to engage.

Communication outside of lessons should remain lesson-related and practical, such as:

  • Scheduling matters

  • Material access issues

  • Clarifying upcoming lesson plans

Elucidated English does not operate as a casual chat or personal messaging service. Boundaries are in place to protect the teacher’s time, emotional capacity, and lesson quality.

Responses outside lesson hours may not be immediate.

Elucidated English can support exam-focused learners, especially in areas such as:

  • Speaking confidence

  • Structured responses

  • Communication clarity

However, Elucidated English is not designed as a last-minute cram service.

The teaching approach prioritises:

  • Skill development

  • Real-world communication

  • Long-term learning habits

Students seeking highly intensive exam-only preparation may wish to consider institutions specialising in short-term test training.

This is completely normal.

Many adult learners experience nervousness, hesitation, or self-doubt when speaking English. Lessons at Elucidated English are designed to be supportive, respectful, and pressure-aware.

Students are encouraged to speak at a comfortable pace, take risks with language, and gradually build confidence over time. Feeling nervous does not mean you are doing badly. It means you are growing.

No. Lessons are non-transferable and may not be assigned, gifted, or transferred to another person.

This ensures lesson integrity, accurate student records, and appropriate preparation for the learner originally enrolled.

Possibly.

As Elucidated English continues to grow and invest in improved systems, materials, and infrastructure, lesson prices may be reviewed from time to time.

Any changes will always be considered carefully and introduced responsibly, with fairness to current and future students.

Elucidated English is an excellent fit for students who:

  • Value structured, meaningful lessons

  • Appreciate honesty, clarity, and adult-level communication

  • Want a teacher who understands the challenges of learning English as a second language

It may not be the best fit for students seeking:

  • Unlimited flexibility outside established systems

  • Last-minute cram-only learning

  • A large corporate tutoring platform with multiple interchangeable teachers

Elucidated English is a small, independently run learning environment built on respect, realism, and professional care.

Students who share those values tend to thrive here.

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