Monday, November 28, 2011

Press Release: Bolder Languages and Spanish Easy and Fun Partner to Educate Colorado’s Front Range on the Spanish Language and Latin Culture



Bolder Languages announced today an official partnership with Spanish Easy and Fun to be its official Spanish Language and Culture Business Unit. The two companies share similar goals of educating the local population on navigating an increasingly growing Hispanic population and increasing business opportunities with a better prepared workforce.

“Spanish Easy and Fun’s language programs are right on point with our goal of making Colorado an economic powerhouse by taking advantage of our globalized economy” said David Stevens, Bolder Languages founder. “Latin America’s economy is on the rise, and while the US economy has been stagnant, looking outside our borders is necessary. Even within our state, local firms with knowledge of Spanish will open doors to a very large market.”

20% of Colorado’s citizens speak Spanish as a first language according to the 2010 US Census. The Bolder Languages and Spanish Easy and Fun partnership will help lower the costs of teaching Spanish and enable a more people to take advantage of these services. Benefits of having a bilingual community will help to reduce crime, increase job opportunities, and and stimulate the local economy by enabling firms to increase revenue through international channels.

About Bolder Languages

Bolder Languages is a Cross Cultural Communication agency serving Colorado. Headquartered in Boulder, services offer assistance for people and firms across the front range, including language instruction, translation and interpretation, and business programs. Bolder Languages, founded in 2007, has expertise in education and cultures, enabling Colorado citizens to better interact and compete in today’s increasingly globalized economy. For more information please visit www/bolderlanguages.us.

About Spanish Easy and Fun

Spanish Easy and Fun is a Language School with offices in Longmont and Boulder. Curriculum has been created by Native Spanish speakers to make learning the new language fun and easy, with more of a focus on becoming conversational than traditional language courses. Specialties include Children Programs, Travel Preparation, and Healthcare. Since inception Spanish Easy and Fun has taught close to 500 people in the Front Range how to speak Spanish. For more information please visit www.spanisheasyfun.com.

CONTACT: Bolder Languages - David Stevens at 303.997.9207 or info@bolderlanguages.us

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Unprecedented Opposition to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

In response to a recent article I read opposing the recent Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, I decided to write this. You can see the original article here:

http://lawg.org/component/content/article/76/947

Free trade is a good thing, and generally speaking should benefit everyone involved if it is truly free trade. I have yet to see strong evidence to support why this deal has so much opposition.

Most countries with which the US opens up Free Trade Agreements benefit in many new ways. They can easily market and sell their products and services to us, and benefit from buying US products, like clothing, electronics, and more without having to pay gigantic tariffs, which can sometimes more than double the cost of a product. Imagine if the Apple computer you are reading this article on cost $3,000, with the majority of that fee going to your government!

I think the conflict people fear when it comes to international trade is that we are outsourcing jobs, supporting unfair working conditions, and exploiting people. Unfortunately, this is a sad biproduct of something that should help everyone involved.

I meet with clients frequently looking to do business abroad. What I recommend is the following:

1.) Be a good Global Citizen. This means respect the new culture and cater to local business practices and customs to the extent that you can. However, if something is illegal in the United States, do not buy into that while abroad.

2.) Know the people and companies with whom you are doing business. Spend extra time upfront to build a good relationship. Make sure that the companies that you outsource to or import from are ethical and not exploiting people.

3.) Focus on creating value - this does not mean improving your margins by finding very cheap labor, but doing things that will actually add value to your brand, improve the quality of your products, and the perception your customer has of you.

4.) Develop programs to prepare your employees for an international environment. Teach them languages and cultures, and incorporate that into your domestic business.

5.) Think very strongly before making a decision to outsource a major operation. Look for ways to promote the people that may lose their job to a higher value position within or have a plan to ensure they transition to a new job smoothly.

We have been participating in international trade for thousands of years. Creating true Free Trade environments reduces unnecessary taxes and benefits everyone involved, but we must maintain a high level of ethics when doing so. So instead of fighting things like this agreement with Colombia, which really is inevitable, let's make sure that people are not exploited and we are doing this to add value to our communities, organizations, and customers.

I welcome your feedback here. Please join the debate by adding your comments below.

Give the gift of language this year!

As we go into the holiday season this year, it is easy to get caught up in material things. Clothes, Electronics, CDs, etc are what normally comes to mind.

This year Bolder Languages would like to suggest that you give something much more profound to your loved ones - the gift of language!

Learning a language has never been more important. You will be able to open up new doors to friends, travel experiences, and job opportunities. This year, give the gift that will last a lifetime to your loved ones. We have options in many languages, visit our website here to learn more:

http://www.bolderlanguages.us/languageasagift.php

* Arabic

* Chinese

* English as a Second Language (ESL)

* French

* Italian

* German

* Portuguese

* Russian

* Spanish

* Always seeking new instructors!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Haitian Hope

A good friend of mine, Caroline Laborde, travels to Haiti one or two times a year to volunteer in a small village called Trouin. She has a blog called Haitian Hope, which you can see here:



Please take a minute to read about her travels and work in Haiti!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Bolder Languages Social Media Sites

Hi,

I am writing this to announce my decision to leave Symplified, the software company I have been with for the past 5 years in Boulder Colorado. While a great opportunity, and I am very appreciative to have been given the chance to help build a company now doing $5M/year in revenue fresh out of college, it felt it was time to chase my dreams of being an entrepreneur and chasing some of my business ideas.

About 4 years ago I founded a company called Bolder Languages, which is a cross cultural communication agency dedicate to breaking down cultural barriers. Through language instruction, interpretation and translations services, and cross cultural communication training, we aim to improve the world we live in, promote diversity, and enhance our local community through the creation of jobs and a powerful international business community.

I can't say that I have everything figured out, and I am sure that it will be a long and challenging road to build this business from scratch. I would greatly appreciate any help you can provide in the endeavor, and one suggestion would be to get involved and follow us on our social media sites. Please take a moment to do the following, and send this along to your colleagues, friends, and family.

http://www.linkedin.com/company/bolder-languages/
Please click the follow button if you have not already.

http://www.facebook.com/BolderLanguages/
Please become a fan and invite your friends to do the same.

http://www.bolderlanguages.blogspot.com/
Sign up to the RSS feed and share articles with your friends and family as you see fit.

http://twitter.com/#!/BolderLanguages/
Follow us to see all of the latest updates, and again please invite people you know to do the same.

If you know anyone in Colorado looking for our services, or looking for employment with a company like this, please let me know and pass along my contact information.

--
Best,

David Stevens
CEO and Founder
Bolder Languages


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Impact Immigration Has On Education In Colorado And The Answer To Immigration Reform

I am inspired to write this thanks to an article I just read from this Sunday's Denver post:



I learned some interesting things in reading this about Colorado's educational systems and demographics, which lead me to believe we need to come together quickly to embrace immigration and improve our local educational institutions in order to meet today's new demographic truths:

  • 117,363 students out of 843,000 total in Colorado do not speak English as their first language. That is 14% of all students!
  • Some schools, such as Crystal River Elementary, report that approximately 60% of their student body speaks Spanish as their first language.
  • Unfortunately, schools do not dedicate the appropriate resources to serve these demographics, resulting very sadly in my ultimate fact according to this article, that only 49% of students that speak English as a Second Language graduate from High School.

So let's look at both sides of the debate:

1.) Make immigration harder like in Alabama, and only support our US born citizens in the educational systems.

2.) Develop programs catering to our new neighbors and redesign the public school systems to better accomodate a diverse population.

People fear what they don't understand, and today we see in the media an increasingly intense debate about immigration reform. Sure, we could make it much harder to come to our country and crack down on illegal immigration, but this simply does not work. As a matter of fact, our economy really needs immigration to thrive. Crystal River Elementary is actually very close to Aspen, a place where you would not guess so many students are not native English speakers. They came with their families to fill manual labor positions like construction that many Americans will not do for the money being offered. So in order for us to continue to pay low prices on products and services, we need people that are willing to do the work for less money.

Who built our railroads? Who built the skyscrapers in New York? And today, who is building our houses? The vast majority you will find are immigrants in search of a better life, willing to do the jobs we won't. My fellow people, the United States is the melting pot of the world, and I guarantee that 99.9% of the people that read this had family that immigrated here within the past 200 years. We are all immigrants!

Why continue to fight this? It is expensive, ineffective, and creates hate. We spend millions of dollars a year on border patrol and deportation, and most of the deportees come right back within a few months. Not to mention, the negative impact this would have on our taxes and benefits programs like social security. Did you know that illegal immigrants, through fake green cards and social security numbers, actually pay taxes and contribute to our welfare programs, and will never be able to benefit from this themselves? If this wasn't such a hidden gem to illegal immigration I would bet our country would very quickly figure out a way to eliminate it, but it is simply too beneficial for us to have this happen the way it does today.

So what I would propose is option 2, and develop programs to help immigrants integrate into our society and redesign our educational systems to meet the quickly changing demographics.

First, we should look at ways to come together as a community and help our new neighbors integrate. There are a few organizations doing this today, like Intercambio de Comunidades in Boulder, that have English classes, integration workshops, and other services geared towards reducing the challenges of moving to a new country. They have been well recognized for their work in the community, with politicians and law enforcement officials siting the positive impact of happier people, less crime, and a more productive society.

Second, we should study the languages and cultures of the folks that are flocking here with cross-cultural communications agencies such as Bolder Languages. Depending on where you live, this could be Latin Americans trying to escape the horrible conditions of the drug war, Africans escaping famine and torture, or expat entrepreneurs investing in new businesses. Most people coming to the US are in pursuit of the American dream and genuinely want to create new things, build businesses, and be happy. As US citizens it is our duty to serve as global ambassadors and help make this happen, so our economy can recover and we can once again thrive as a nation.

Finally, let's think of ways to improve our educational systems to accomodate ESL students. There are many ways we can do this. One would be to offer cross-cultural communication training to the teachers. Another should be to have an immersion program so new comers are fully fluent in English. Most universities require students receive TOEFL certifications before joining as a full time student, so why do we make K-12 students jump right into calculous before knowing what 2+2 means in English?

In conclusion, I encourage you to study the new cultures and embrace them. Stop complaining, don't be scared, and think of how you can be a part of the solution.

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