10 Tips for Learning a Foreign Language as an Adult

While the U.S. is home to over 350 different languages, according to a report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), most Americans are monolingual. And this limitation can negatively impact individuals, U.S. companies, and even the country as a whole.   For example, the AAAS notes that learning a second language improves cognitive ability, assists in learning other subjects, and delays some of the effects of aging. Other findings include that up to 30% of U.S. companies have stated that they’ve missed business opportunities in foreign countries because they didn’t have in-house staff who spoke the dominant languages of those countries, and 40% stated they could not reach their international potential because of language barriers.  However, one of the most striking and alarming examples of the importance of learning a foreign language happened at the onset of the 2004 avian flu epidemic. According to the AAAS, scientists in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries did not originally understand the magnitude of avian flu because they could not read the original research – which was written by Chinese researchers. In fact, the report notes that just 200,000 U.S. students are studying Chinese compared to 300 to 400 million Chinese students who are studying English. And 66% of Europeans know at least one other language compared to just 20% of Americans. Many European countries have national requirements that students must learn at least one foreign language by the age of 9, according to data from the Pew Research Center. In the U.S., school districts are typically allowed to set their own policies. As a result, the vast majority (89%) of American adults who know a foreign language say they learned it in their childhood home. Learning Styles for Children Children and adults learn foreign languages differently. Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association, says, â€Å"Children generally learn languages through games, songs, and repetition, and in an immersive environment, they often produce speech spontaneously.† And there’s a reason for that spontaneity. According to Katja Wilde, head of Didactics at Babbel, â€Å"Unlike adults, children are less aware of making mistakes and the associated embarrassment, and therefore, dont correct themselves.† Learning Styles for Adults However, Feal explains that with adults, studying the formal structures of the language is usually helpful. â€Å"Adults learn to conjugate verbs, and they benefit from grammatical explanations along with strategies such as repetition and memorizing key phrases.† Adults also learn in a more conscious way, according to Wilde: â€Å"They have strong metalinguistic awareness, which children don’t have.† This means that adults reflect on the language they learn. For example ‘Is this the best word to express what I want to say’ or ‘Did I use the correct grammar structure?’† Wilde explains. And adults usually have different motivators. Wilde says that adults typically have specific reasons for learning a foreign language. â€Å"Better quality of life, self-improvement, career advancements, and other intangible benefits are usually the motivating factors.   Some people believe that its too late for adults to learn a new language, but Wilde disagrees. â€Å"Although children tend to be better at subconscious learning, or acquisition, adults tend to be better at learning, because they are able to process more complex thought processes.† Try 10 tips for learning languages: 1) Know why youre doing it. 2) Find a partner. 3) Talk to yourself. 4) Keep it relevant. 5) Have fun with it. 6) Act like a child. 7) Leave your comfort zone. 8) Listen. 9) Watch people talk. 10) Dive in. Feal also recommends other ways for adults to learn a foreign language, such as watching TV shows and film in the target language. â€Å"In addition, reading written materials of all kinds, engaging in interactive conversations on the web, and for those who can travel, an in-country experience, can help adults make meaningful progress.† In addition to these tips, Wilde says that Babbel offers on-line courses that can be completed in bite-sized chunks, anytime and anywhere. Other sources for learning a new language include Learn A Language, Fluent in 3 Months, and DuoLingo. College students can also take advantage of study abroad programs where they can learn new languages and new cultures. There are several benefits to learning a new language. This type of skill can increase cognitive skills and lead to career opportunities - especially since multilingual employees can earn higher salaries. Learning new languages and cultures can also result in a more informed and diverse society.

Why Jessica Should Go Into Building An Independent...

Reading Time Struggles I think that Jessica should go back to the basics of building an independent classroom and students before splitting them into groups with any other adult leading them. Because there are other volunteers in the classroom the students are unable to actually be independent and do independent work, which is important for students to be able to do. After she builds this independent behavior for her class, having volunteers might be a bit easier and helpful in other ways. If the need for the volunteers is necessary looking to the pyramid would be helpful for Jessica and the volunteers (Linsin, 2013). Jessica needs to encourage a relationship between the students and the volunteers, along with her self. She can do this by setting aside a get to know you time where the students can meet the volunteers and get to know them, and vice versa for the students. I think it would be important for the volunteers to be involved in center time as well. This will give them a chan ce to interact with all students but on a more personal level, as they can filter through each center and meet with smaller groups of students. If groups are formed and there are still instances of a certain student acting out, I would switch their group so that student could work with a different volunteer or with the teacher. That student may just not like the way the group is being run. I would also go over with students what respect is and how we should respect one another and other adultsShow MoreRelatedManaging Information Technology (7th Edition)239873 Words   |  960 PagesIntelligence Journey CASE STUDY II-4 Mining Data to Increase State Tax Revenues in California CASE STUDY II-5 The Cliptomaniaâ„ ¢ Web Store: An E-Tailing Start-up Survival Story CASE STUDY II-6 Rock Island Chocolate Company, Inc.: Building a Social Networking Strategy CASE STUDY III-1 Managing a Systems Development Project at Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc. CASE STUDY III-2 A Make-or-Buy Decision at Baxter Manufacturing Company CASE STUDY III-3 ERP PurchaseRead MoreProject Managment Case Studies214937 Words   |  860 Pagesauthorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, e-mail: permcoordinator@wiley.com. Limit of LiabilityDisclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author

Finding Security free essay sample

Growing up, my family moved pretty much every year of my life. I have lived in Florida, Montana, Hawaii, and all over California. Although this strange migratory habit brought me a wealth of unique experience, it put me into almost complete isolation with my mentally ill mother. I had my sister, but my father often stayed in California to earn a living while my mother forced us to strange new locations, so the buffer between myself and her bipolar disorder was thin. She was emotionally abusive and completely blind to her illness; all she wanted to do was be a good mother and have a normal family. She herself was a victim to a damaging childhood and sought to create what she never had growing up. My mother lived for her children, but could not see how much she was hurting us. Eventually we settled down, doing so in the mile high artist town of Idyllwild where I went to public school for the first time. Through these years of elementary school my sister and I interacted with other families and came to realize my mother’s condition. My sister came to this before me and I was in 5th grade when she stated her desire to live with our father. I saw it as trying to destroy our family, but all she was trying to do was save herself. From there, things grew increasingly unstable as my sister and I matured and my mother began to lose control of us. By the time I was entering high school, I knew I could no longer live with my mother’s insanity and I made arrangements with my father to move out.This was starting new. LA, away from my mother and everything familiar. My sister stayed with a friend’s family back in Idyllwild instead of moving with us. Throughout my life, I have always been aware of my family’s economic situation, but it was not until we were forced to get food stamps that it hit me with total clarity. My father brings in only $30,000 a year and until very recently, my mother was completely dependant. This left no room for a college fund and any university in my future is wholly dependant upon my performance as a student. The lack of funds and economic unsurity created great anxiety for me and I started to direct myself towards a career which would bring the largest income instead ofsomething I actually enjoyed. When I first moved to LA, I threw myself towards academics, focusing on my schoolwork rather than the emotional turmoil I was still experiencing. Rather than being the building blocks towards a joyful career, my academics were an excuse to hide my emotions and start towards a profitable job.I was away from my sister and could not recognize the many miles from healthy we still were despite having distanced ourselves from our mother. All this changed when I was reunited with my sister and experienced what a normal family was for the first time. We started to come to terms with how our life with our mother had affected us and heal the scars from it. One of the most important things in my life now is this maintainance of a family and the recovery of my sister who was no doubt more damaged by our mother than I was. She is older and often acted to protect me from my mother’s illness, and in turn took the brunt of her emotional abuse. Though my sister is more damaged than I, she still aims to help and steer me. It was in a conversation with her that I recognized the futility in my career goals. I thought that the money presented by the career would bring me happiness and stability and I could not see the impossibility of that idea. One needs to pursue passion and find purpose in what they love rather than what is the most economically beneficial. With her help, I reoriented myself towards my dream of being an environmental scientist and conservationist. Throughout my childhood, the places I lived put me in touch will all number of environments and showed me the beauty and power of nature. In Montana, the snow which brought stunning landscapes and delightful flurries could also deal disaster, power outages, and death. In Idyllwild, the forests which were home to countless hours of play and adorable creatures could easily become fuel for massive blazes, consuming homes and acres of wilderness. In highschool, I have been given the privilege of participating in environmental monitoringand preservation of the Santa Barbara Channel and the Channel Islands. The combination of all this ignited a fire in me to help preserve some of the most awe inspiring stuff in existence. Through work as an environmental scientist and conservationist, I could direct my love of nature into something worthwhile and have a career I actually enjoyed. With this knowledge, I have found new passion in my studies, seeing them as a path towards my dream rather tha n economic profit. Though much of my life was fraught with insecurity and emotional turmoil, it brought me many unique and important experiences. The same isolation caused my my mother’s bipolar disorder also showed me the value of nature and nurtured my passion for it. Although I have always dedicated myself to schoolwork, I see the value of my education much differently now than in the past. Previously, my studies were a way to achieve profitability and escape the anxiety of economic insecurity, but now they are building blocks towards a career I am passionate about. In total, my tumulous past, though it spawned much sadness, gave me an appreciation for the family I have now and strong direction for my future life.

Operation Management Competitive Supply Chain

Question: Discuss about the Operation Management for Competitive Supply Chain. Answer: Introduction It has been identified that among different significant aspects, inventory management is also one the important aspect of a successful business. Different techniques are involved to control and oversee the flow of inventory sections that an organization utilizes in the productions of the products to sale or distribution. As mentioned by Chung, Crdenas-Barron and Ting, (2014), the inventories usually consist of the combination or mixture of products, raw materials as well as finished products. Therefore, effective and developed management technique is required to ensure the increasing stock levels. The enhanced management techniques are also required to increase the earning potential of the organization. The appropriate implementation of the inventory management techniques contributes to the business in preventing or dealing with any damage or losses related to inventory (Song, Dong Xu, 2014). Thus, it can be mentioned that effective inventory management is highly required as not only is inventory being the most valuable element to the organization; there is an effective relationship between the inventory levels and organizational profits. In order to understand the techniques involved in inventory management, the current report focuses on the current inventory management techniques used in Brisbane Outdoor, which has three different locations across Queensland City of Brisbane. The organization offers different mixed designed products that include different garden equipments. By analyzing the current inventory management techniques used by the company, the effectiveness and further improvement can be developed. Current purchasing and inventory management technique used by the company The case study indicates that Saxon usually follows and maintains Laissez-faire leadership style, which is also known as the delegative leadership style. While maintaining the operation at Mt Gravatt store, Donald is observed to be relaxed in the operation. On the contrary, Green would follow a tight operation at Strathpine. However, it is observed that in laissez-faire leadership style, the leaders hands.-off and permits the group members to make and implement management decisions. Likewise, at Mt Gravatt, Donald usually does not interfere in the operation of the branch being the CEO of the company. He would allow other persons or the production managers of the organization to investment decision to lead the business. As argued by Sadeghi, Sadeghi, and Niaki (2014), Laissez-faire leadership leads to the lowest productivity of the organization. As the leader of the organization shows poor interest in developing the operation of the organization, the other staff lacks motivation in th e operation. This leadership style highly affects the inventory management practices of the Brisbane outdoor. The current techniques involved in inventory management of the company helps to learn that organization lacks a necessary large investment. The company did not implement any integrated approach. Brisbane Outdoor has three different similar stores but managers of three branches do their individual sourcing and purchasing of the inventory. Different approaches are followed in each of the stores, which mean no integrated approach has been applied. In the end, it could highly affect the organization as well as the company may suffer from the large sever financial crisis (Rushton, Croucher Baker, 2014). In addition, the current inventory management system at Brisbane Outdoor provides an insight that lack stock investment may create a shortage in the inventory. As the three branches of the organization run the operation of similar products, large investment should be made with integrated approach. Moreover, due to the laid-back attitude of the branch head, no modification of the approaches has been implemented. On the contrary, laissez-faire leadership followed by Saxon is not considered as the idea in situation where the members of the individuals lack the knowledge or the experience but they are required to accomplish the tasks as well as make the decisions. The current inventory management system of the company leads to unconnected purchasing and inventory management system. Due to the implementation of this approach, the organization is not able to make large investment decision, which is highly required for the organization. Additionally, it can also be mentioned that poor inventory management decisions could lead to further financial loss. Comparative advantages and disadvantages of the used processes Advantages The current inventory management approaches may provide certain advantages to the Brisbane Outdoor such as shortage goods can be transferred when the shortage of supply of the products occurred. As mentioned by Hill, Jones and Schilling (2014), Laissez-fair leadership may prove to be effective in the situation where the members of the group are highly skilled and capable on their own. Hence, the staff at the Mt Gravatt is highly skilled; thereby, Saxon would not interfere in the operation. In addition, these approaches indicate that the members at Mt. Gravatt have the knowledge and appropriate skills to work independently. However, as the firm does not have any integrated approach in managing the operation, each of the stores operated autonomously. As the managers at Brisbane Outdoor have the ability run the inventory system, they would do their own sourcing as well as purchasing of the inventory. Thus, the organization did not have to make investment in developing the techniques of inventory management. Hence, the company is free from the investment of providing training and development session. Therefore, a large amount of the money has been used in manufacturing of goods and services. Disadvantages Although, the people at Brisbane Outdoor power centre are skilled enough to deal with the individual operation, there have been some cases where the group members are seen to be inefficient in making and implementing the large decision of the organization. In addition, three different styles of management have been followed in the operation; the firm lacks proper goals and objectives for the development of management. As the CEO of the company lacks interests and shows a laid-back attitude towards the enhancement of the management, the lower-levels staffs did not establish any schedule activities to accomplish the future goals. This could be worse if the completion in this particular industry increases. For example, if the new firms access to the market, Brisbane Outdoor may lag behind in performance since the company does not have any unanimous or integrated approach to control the operation. Additionally, if the industry observes a rush in supply or demand of the products, the firm could suffer from the shortage of supply of the products despite the increasing demands (Farahani, Rezapour, Drezner Fallah, 2014). Furthermore, as the managers of the organization do not interact with other managers of the branches, the current sales and profit margin of the company can be understood and developed properly by implementing advanced techniques. Lastly, it can be mentioned that, the firm needs to adopt changes in its inventory management systems to deal with future potential challenges. Supplychain and inventory management concepts contributing to company to maximize efficiency and minimize investment Developed supply chain management Integration of the logistic process with the suppliers: Irrespective of the size of the company, the most significant approach is to integrate the logistical approaches or the techniques with the firm. Whereas not entirely relied on the software system, particular applications of enterprise resource planning help the organization to enhance the communication in between the business as well as the suppliers (Mardani, Jusoh Zavadskas, 2015). For example, if a supplier has the ability to acquire the rate based on which a business operates through its inventory, the business could easily meet any certain change in the demand by developing the operational efficiencies for both parties. Employ could-based system increasing cost savings as well as operational efficiencies: The significant advantage associated with the cloud-based system is the increasing ability focusing on the domain experts discovered in the organization implementing these systems. As opined by Leiras et al., (2014), the small business generally does not have the proper budget for developing their Information Technology department. Therefore, by implementing the supply chain system in the cloud, the firm could take the advantages of the team that is relied on the software and networking. In addition, this technique reduces the efforts and time of the employees from running day-to-day operations. This could result in operational savings as well as the efficiencies. Advanced integrated inventory management system It has been observed that from an operational perspective, the preliminary goals of the organization are facilitate the approach of inventory management as inventory management system largely influences the operation (Esmaeilikia et al., 2014). Hence, the company could implement an integrated inventory management system, which could provide inventory visibility to the branch of supply chain partners. In addition, the company could state inventory in the financial reports quite appropriately. As mentioned by Martnez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes, (2014), by having a mixture and appropriate amount of the inventory on supply should be paramount to both customers as well as satisfaction of the investors. In addition to this, like every other organization, Brisbane Outdoor needs to utilize supply chain partners to deal with the levels of the inventory and the shipment of the customers. Thus, in order to implement this successfully, the inventory management system should be integrated with not only the back office system of the company but also with the suppliers and other logistic system of the company. In order to successfully apply an advanced inventory management system, it is important for the organization to integrate the approach within the daily function conducted by the personnel of the organization. This approach provides a set of advantages such as when a user or the customer wants to order goods; the firms could go through the Inventory Management Systems screen to find out the Acquisition. Such type of process needs to be available for Redeployment and Termination of the assets (Laurent et al., 2014). When the use asks for a particular product of specific type of the goods, hence, the inventory systems go through whether the product is in the surplus or the product needs to be purchased under the existing volume. Recommendation to restructure the purchasing and inventory function of the company Integrated inventory management model- Figure 1: Integrated Inventory system model (Source: Brandenburg, Govindan, Sarkis Seuring, 2014) The above-mentioned figure consisting of the entire structure of the inventory system model may look little complex; however, significantly all that are needed to execute an effective integrated inventory management is the proper understanding of the fundamental inventory management process. This model is mixed with effective as well a disciplined application of the practices or the approaches associated with the model (Martnez-Jurado Moyano-Fuentes, 2014). The model indicates that the blue-shaded figure represent the stand-alone inventory management technique. Aspects of the bill materials- This element helps to make the relationship of repairable ingredients, which is assembled as well as sub-assembled to make up the whole asset. Usage of the data- The existing information relied on the materials issues that could reflect the deadline and values of the pound of all room parts of the store. Inventory data- This element is considered as the fundamental part of the inventory control system. Obsolete materials- This is considered as any material that could no longer be used due to redesign of the product, physical damage of the goods and deterioration and other reasons Action plan Activities Techniques of applying the model Time Reviewing the existing approaches of the inventory management system Comparing the performance with the newly developed criteria 1st Month Applying the new model of inventory management system Matching the techniques of the model with the criteria mentioned in the beginning; this means the flaws in applying the technique and modify them accordingly 2nd month Observing each of the elements associated with the model while implementing them replacing the existing system Measuring the relevancy and efficiency of the model comparing with the existing system 3r week of the 2nd month Observing the outcome of the model after the implementation Measuring the outcome of the newly applied model 1st week of the 4th month Evaluating the outcome Identifying the flaws in the model After 6 months of the implementation Table 1: Action plan (Source: Created by Myself) Conclusion On the completion of the report, it can be mentioned that though Brisbane has effectively earned the profits from three outlets of the organization. The leader of the organization maintains Laissez-faire approach to utilize the skills and knowledge of the personnel. However, it is necessary for the organization to implement an integrated inventory management system to control the operation of three stores with similar goals and objectives. This could help the organization to gain the projected benefits. Reference list: Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J., Seuring, S. (2014). Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions.European Journal of Operational Research,233(2), 299-312. Chung, K. J., Crdenas-Barrn, L. E., Ting, P. S. (2014). An inventory model with non-instantaneous receipt and exponentially deteriorating items for an integrated three layer supply chain system under two levels of trade credit.International Journal of Production Economics,155, 310-317. Esmaeilikia, M., Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J., Govindan, K., Kumar, A., Mo, J. (2014). Tactical supply chain planning models with inherent flexibility: definition and review.Annals of Operations Research, 1-21. Farahani, R. Z., Rezapour, S., Drezner, T., Fallah, S. (2014). Competitive supply chain network design: An overview of classifications, models, solution techniques and applications.Omega,45, 92-118. Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., Schilling, M. A. (2014).Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning. Laurent, A., Bakas, I., Clavreul, J., Bernstad, A., Niero, M., Gentil, E., ... Christensen, T. H. (2014). Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systemsPart I: Lessons learned and perspectives.Waste management,34(3), 573-588. Leiras, A., de Brito Jr, I., Queiroz Peres, E., Rejane Bertazzo, T., Tsugunobu Yoshida Yoshizaki, H. (2014). Literature review of humanitarian logistics research: trends and challenges.Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management,4(1), 95-130. Mardani, A., Jusoh, A., Zavadskas, E. K. (2015). Fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making techniques and applicationsTwo decades review from 1994 to 2014.Expert Systems with Applications,42(8), 4126-4148. Martnez-Jurado, P. J., Moyano-Fuentes, J. (2014). Lean management, supply chain management and sustainability: a literature review.Journal of Cleaner Production,85, 134-150. Rushton, A., Croucher, P., Baker, P. (2014).The handbook of logistics and distribution management: Understanding the supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers. Sadeghi, J., Sadeghi, S., Niaki, S. T. A. (2014). A hybrid vendor managed inventory and redundancy allocation optimization problem in supply chain management: An NSGA-II with tuned parameters.Computers Operations Research,41, 53-64. Song, D. P., Dong, J. X., Xu, J. (2014). Integrated inventory management and supplier base reduction in a supply chain with multiple uncertainties.European Journal of Operational Research,232(3), 522-536.