Friday, February 7, 2020

8A – Solving The Problem



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 intend to sell a language learning tool that aids children in developing multiple languages. It will teach different languages while also being a game. 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. 

Thursday, February 6, 2020

7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1



Who: Students
What: Companies are more likely to hire people who speak more than one language.
Why: Children need to grow up speaking multiple languages, so they have a better chance of getting job opportunities when they graduate.

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. More than 70% of children in the US don’t study foreign languages in schools compared to 8% of children in Europe. People are trying to teach their kids more languages in the first years of life because that’s when the brain retains the most information in which their career in the future could further.

Testing the who: There are more people who have this need as adults may want to get new jobs that require a second language.
Testing the what: Not only just English-speaking students need a second language but also, students that come from different countries and need to learn English.
Testing the why: Speaking another language doesn’t only help you get better jobs and internships but also can help you communicate with people all around the world. If you like to travel then knowing more than one language will help you when you decide to go abroad.

The five people I interviewed 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.

6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends


1)Coronavirus fears and the markets
b) The article mentions that the consumer and tourism related sectors have already had their shares fall due to the outbreak. Apple already down 3.2% and Disney down 8.3%.
c) The prototypical customer would be the company’s stock and the investors who don’t focus on the long-term benefits of the outbreak.
d) I believe it is easy to exploit because if investors stay calm and wait out for the outbreak to calm down, stocks that have taken a hit will be at a bargain. Even though these companies are taking big hits now, it is usual that they will see no effects a year or two after the outbreak.
2) Retirement? Boomers aren’t ready yet
b) The article gives information that shows a poll of 1,500 U.S. workers between 54 and 72 years old that said that many have decided to extend their careers, working part-time during retirement, and people that have retired but decided to go back to work.
c) The prototypical customer would be young workers, primarily millennials and Gen Z as they are the ones looking for work as the boomers retire.
d) This would be difficult to exploit because all the retired boomers are going back to work for different reasons. Not all of them have the same issues as some are bored of retirement, some can’t afford it, or some don’t want to retire yet.

3) New Law Would Require Middle School Children To Use Car Seats

b) A new law that was placed at the beginning of January says that children under the age of 16 and under 4 feet 9 inches must use a booster seat. As I was a child that didn’t even hit 5 feet until sophomore year of high school, I would have used a booster seat until I was in 7th grade.
c) The prototypical customer would be moms and teenagers that are either under 4 feet 9 inches or their child is.
d) I believe it is easy to exploit because many kids are going to have this problem as they don’t reach that height until they are in middle school.

4) State Plastic and Paper Bag Legislation

b) This can lead to an opportunity as they are getting rid of single-use plastic bags, so people have to bring their own bags to the grocery stores.
c) The prototypical customer would be the people in the states where this law has been enacted and who go to grocery stores.
d) It will be easy to exploit as almost everyone has the issue because the majority of people buy from grocery stores.

I think I saw these opportunities as most of them are ones that I relate to and have concerns about. Some people might not see these opportunities if don’t look at changes in different manners other than their own. I try to see things from many different angles before I make my opinion on it so that may be a reason that I see an opportunity and others don’t.