Types of Incidents You Didn't Know You Should Report

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Occasionally, you may encounter situations during lessons that make you go, “Wait, is that allowed?” Today, we’ll cover four types of situations that may seem harmless but should actually be reported.

1. Suspicious account use

There are two types of suspicious account use.

One student using multiple accounts: The student may be opening up new accounts after being banned for inappropriate behavior.
Account sharing: A student may let a friend or family member use their account to take lessons on our platform.

In both situations, carry on with the lesson as you naturally would but report it to Tutor Support as soon as you can. By enforcing the rules, we make our platform a safer and more pleasant place for all our tutors.

2. Students requesting lessons outside our platform

You may encounter a student who requests lessons with you off of our platform. If this happens, try to politely shift the focus back to the lesson at hand.

I'm sorry, but I give lessons through Engoo/DMM Eikaiwa. You can check my schedule to see when I am available. Let's get back to the lesson, shall we?

If they insist on taking lessons with you off our platform, tell them to contact Customer Support. Then after the lesson, report the student to Tutor Support. Avoiding contact with students outside the platform is your best protection against possible scams or harassment.

3. Students breaking the “one-to-one lesson” rule

All lessons on our platform should be conducted on a one-to-one basis. However, sometimes students unknowingly break this rule.

If you find more than one student in a lesson room, inform the participants that this is not allowed.

Unfortunately, we do not teach group lessons here at DMM Eikaiwa/Engoo. I am also not trained to teach groups. Please contact Customer Support for more information.

If they don't understand, you may conduct the lesson to the best of your ability, but do report the situation to TS as soon as you can, so we can prevent this from happening to other tutors.

4. Overly friendly students

Sometimes, a student might get overly friendly and try to take your relationship beyond the lesson room. Here are some examples of such behavior:

They keep inviting you to meet in real life.
They want to befriend/follow you on social media.
They ask for your home address to send you gifts.

Don't be afraid to politely reject requests like these. It's likely that most students have good intentions, but it's better to be cautious and reject such offers, for that 1% chance that the student might have ulterior motives for sending you gifts.

It's kind of you to want to send me a gift, but I am afraid I have to decline. I would like to keep our relationship professional and focus on teaching you English.

If the student continues to act in a way that makes you uncomfortable, you may end the lesson and report it right away.

👋That’s all for now!

If you encounter other questionable situations, please let Tutor Support know at any time. These could be situations as minor as a student committing cultural faux-pas or just sharing too much private information.

Whatever the case, please know that we will never disclose your identity to the students you report and that we will try our best to be there for you.

Feel free to check out these resources for more information:

This piece was written by Adela.