24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Multilingualism is a key component in childhood development, social skills, and in finding future jobs. The learning of a second language is lacking in US education. Only 58 percent of middle schools and 25 percent of elementary schools offer a foreign language. There is a rise of businesses and jobs in the United States that require applicants to speak more than one language, and sometimes more than just two. The demand for bilingual workers has doubled in the past five years. Bilingual children outperform children who only speak one language in problem-solving skills, critical thinking, multitasking, and they have a stronger ability to focus.

I interviewed five different people who were a student who grew up in another country, a student who only speaks English, a director of a preschool, a parent who raises a bilingual child, and the director of Baby Gator. These five interviews taught me that being bilingual while finding a job anywhere in the world is very important. It can help with critical thinking, decision making, and increases reading comprehension. Having multilingualism lack in US education is not giving us the best shot at becoming successful. One of the students pointed out that they applied for a job and did not receive it due to the fact that he did not speak a second language. The directors of the preschools said that people take in the most information from the ages 2-6 so it is important to start teaching them a second language young. This is why I see the opportunity as important and general for many people.

I want to develop a learning language tool that aids children and students in developing multiple languages while having them interact and play with the product. It is very important to start teaching a majority of the kids in the US more languages early on in life. Shaped like a hexagon with a wider base, the beginning level will show images on the top and there will be corresponding buttons on the sides. There will be different levels of the game where it gets harder as you learn more. For example, it might show a picture of an animal as well as say the name of that animal in your native language. You would then need to press the button that correlates to that screen. As it focuses on child learning first, it will then start upgrading to full sentences and grammar. It would connect to an app that tracks your learning process as well as change the language you want to use and learn. It will switch on and off from the native language and the language you are trying to learn. The levels will also be able to increase to phrases, full sentences, and even grammar. By having this product be audio, visual, and physical it better engages the user then more common methods like an app or flashcards. Only 20 percent of kids in the US are bilingual. Let’s be the change to change this statistic.

Many language learning tools are app-based and are not fun to do. This product makes it a game for kids while teaching them different languages. Customers would switch to this product so they could play games and learn a language at the same time. The competitors are companies like Rosetta Stone or other apps that teach language. I believe my top resource is the uniqueness of my product. My product differs from every other product in my market and therefore has no similar competition. This is very important to the success of my venture as it sets my product apart because it has a physical and online presence. I want to create different games that virtually do the same thing but with a different process. I also want to find games that can cater to an older audience. I want this product to be sold in places like Target and Walmart but also online on websites like Amazon.