Are you running a dental clinic with great number of customers? If you are struggling hard to handle the requirements of the customers, then you’ve to implement a virtual receptionist service. You can handle the customers easily with the help of this service as it can do most of the management tasks at your office. You can lead a comfortable work life because it handles appointment scheduling and sending reminders skillfully without creating any errors. This makes the people who once enjoyed your service to return back when they are in need of your service.

Reduces the number of staff

The virtual receptionist service can complete most of the office management tasks performed by a front-desk staff, which includes appointment scheduling and sending reminders. You can use your skilled staff for more responsible tasks such as patient care. This will increase the productivity and revenue of your dental office. Reducing the number of staff helps your clinic to save money on salary and perks.

24/7 service

Customers can contact the dental office at any time of the day as it is available to take calls for 24/7. This enables the customers to make calls during night also, if they are busy with their work schedules. Your dental office can approve the leaves or holidays of the staff without worrying about the productivity. A virtual receptionist service can manage office tasks both as a part-time and full-time receptionist. Most patients have a busy work schedule, which does not allow them to make appointment calls during working hours. As the service is available for 24/7, the patients can schedule, cancel or re-schedule the appointment even during after-hours.

Multi-lingual

It can talk to the customers in different languages in addition to English. This enables the customers to converse in a language they are familiar and comfortable with.

Increases productivity

Virtual receptionist service increases the efficiency of the dental office as it allows dentists to spend more time on consultation. It responds to the calls very quickly and send reminders to the patients about their appointment details. Personalized reminder messages are sent to the customers to remind about the details of the appointment. This reduces the no-shows considerably. As it handles most of the management tasks, the dentists can concentrate on their practice. If any of the patients is not coming for the consultation, the service will allot the same time slot to another patient. Thus, this service helps to increase the revenue of the dental office.

Market Entry – Mexico?

America’s southern neighbour is a great place to start a business. If you are looking for a place to grow, starting a business in Mexico is an ideal location. Mexico has more free trade agreements than any other nation in the world. In recent years, new amendments to the Mexican foreign investment law have simplified procedures and made it easier to invest in Mexico. These amendments have not only made the administrative process easier but it has helped promote foreign investment and give a sense of security to foreign investors.

But before you go rushing in and starting a business in Mexico, here are a few things you need to know:

Ask around. As much as the single information source you are asking might seem legitimate, it’s best you get a second opinion. Procedures and processes can vary and not everyone is aware of the latest requirements.

Get well acquainted with your accountant. As a foreigner doing business in Mexico, you will have plenty of paperwork and administrative procedures to follow, especially as regulations change from year-to-year. It is important you find a trustworthy accountant to help you along the way.

Patience is a virtue. Like in most South American countries, time is relative and two days might turn into a week, a week into a month, and so on and so forth. It’s important to be patient and follow up closely with the people you have set deadlines with.

Play by the rules. Regulations change frequently. Although nationals may get away with certain things, as a foreigner, it’s advisable to play by the book. This reinforces the idea of having a good accountant who can assist you with the tricky legal landscape of starting and running a business in Mexico.

Establish good relationships. A good business is built on solid relationships. To do this, it is important you establish trust and get to know your vendors and clients well. Take the time to go out to lunch, share personal information, and accept invitations to social gatherings. Mexicans do business with their friends and people they trust.

Legal Landscape for Foreign Investment?

Mexico, the prosperous southern neighbour of the United States, is considered one of the most attractive destinations for foreign investment thanks to its strategic location. Recent legislative reforms, as well as modifications made to the Law of Foreign Investment, now allow both locals and foreigners to participate in activities that were previously restricted.

But despite the niche opportunities that have been brought upon by these legislative changes, what should you keep in mind if you want to start a company in Mexico as a foreign investor?

The first and most important step is to identify and define the social objective of the company. This means defining the activities for which you will be responsible, beyond marketing goods or services.

Despite sectors opening up to international investment in accordance with The Foreign Investment Law, there are still limits and restrictions regarding certain economic activities. Within the restricted activities, there are a few in which only the State can participate. This includes activities in the national electric system, radioactive minerals, nuclear power generation and ticketing. There are also activities reserved for Mexicans only, including development banking institutions as well as providing professional and technical (public notaries, brokers, customs brokers) services.

Lastly, there are also activities in which foreign investment cannot exceed a certain percentage. The National Commission of Foreign Investment (FIC) allows up to 10% of foreign investment in production cooperatives; up to 25% in domestic air transport and other specialized air transport; up to 49% in broadcasting, national newspapers, manufacturing and marketing of explosives and firearms as well as freshwater fishing, to name a few.

Activities that allow foreign investment exceeding 49% include: concessionnaires or companies that provide aerodromes services to the public; legal services; private services for preschool, primary, secondary, high school and higher education; shipping companies and provision of public rail transport services.

If your company falls within one of the activities mentioned above, you must file a CNIE application that will authorize you to invest up to 100% of the share capital. The application should have a general description of the project, share capital budget, projected growth for the coming years, as well as a detailed summary explaining the type of employee training provided. Should the CNIE deem necessary, additional information can be requested. Upon receiving the request, you have a maximum of 15 labor days to respond before your application is closed.

If your application is in order and was well received, the Mexican government will issue their decision within 40 working days.

Numerous manufacturers have created different versions of R4 cards, called R4 clones. Apart from these, few companies come with totally different SLOT-1 flash storage devices for Nintendo gaming consoles. Let us move ahead to compare an R4 card’s clone and a new creation.

R4i Gold

Firstly, we are talking about the R4i Gold card. It is especially designed with a customized firmware, which loads over top of the Nintendo DS and allow the users running unsigned and custom software. The Gold card is said to be a clone of original R4 SDHC card. It supports micros-SD card up to 32GB. Its packaging box has smaller size than that of Supercard DSTWO and Acekard 2i. The cart of Gold card has better build quality than that of Ackeard 2i, but worse than Supercard DSTWO.

The Wood firmware has better user interface than official version. In addition to Gold card, it helped SCDSS1, M3 and others to be popular across Nintendo users. Wood is quickly responsive like AKAIO. You can get numerous skins for this Wood firmware.

The R4i Gold cards are supposed to flash the firmware but it is not updated to be compatible with DSi 1.4. Gold cards often load slowly despite of being a successor to R4 SDHC cards. However, it allows user maintaining games’ library only on one cartridge. The inbuilt Moonshell, homebrew media player, plays back video and music files. The R4iDS launched latest v1.3 updates for both first edition and V2 Gold cards.

CycloDS Evolution

Now, let us have a look on CycloDS Evolution cards. It is a multi-functional micro-SD adapter for Nintendo DS Lite and DS gaming consoles. It allows user playing games, listening MP3 music, viewing images, reading e-books and enjoying various homebrew applications.

CycloDS Evolution is the most advanced Media Enhancer for Nintendo DS and DS Lite. It boasts quality components, European design and better functionality. The additional highlights are SlowMotion mode, LCD brightness adjustment while playing game, in-game reset and RealTime Save.

Its cheat code engine supports Action Replay codes directly. Surprisingly, this Evolution card comes with more than 300 games’ cheat codes. You can save game progress at any point and resume again from the same point using RealTime Save feature. It allows you mastering the game without facing much difficulty. In fact, RealTime Save is quite similar to the ‘saved states’ found on few emulators.

Inbuilt operating system of CycloDS Evolution can work with homebrew software without installing any patch. In addition, you will get faster loading than any other R4DS card. You just have to simply tap and play any game without troubles or significant delays. In addition, these Evolution cards save you from manually applying DLDI patches. They automatically install the required DLDI updates.

Like R4i Gold, the CycloDS Evolution uses micro-SD cards for storage. The Evolution cards come with micro-SD USB Reader to transfer games, files, and homebrew software. Its user interface is exclusively designed to be user friendly and works quite well with the stylus. What’s more? The user interface is multi-lingual and supports Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, Spanish, Korean, Italian, German, French, and English.

The above comparison helps you while selecting between the Gold card and CycloDS Evolution cards. Both are SLOT-1 based Flash card solutions but have different features.

Many of the best Brookline preschools offer enriched programs as part of their curriculum. Why? Because numerous studies have demonstrated that enrichment programs benefit children in every socioeconomic group enabling them to become productive citizens of the world in the future. That of course, is the number one reason many Brookline parents choose to enroll their child in a Brookline preschool that offers an enriched program emphasizing social, physical, and cognitive development in addition to language skills.

Preschools in Brookline should go beyond providing basic childcare and parents searching for the best Brookline preschool providers know this. Enrichment programs should include a variety of activities that stimulate young minds, from learning a second language to dramatic and creative play to basic science experiments that offer kids a chance to explore the world around them in greater detail. With this in mind most preschools in Brookline focus on three basic elements-a whole child approach, bilingual education, and exploration of the world around them.

Exploring the World

Much of what we learn takes place outside the traditional classroom. The preschools in Brookline offer plenty of opportunities for kids to explore the world through field trips, visits to museums and other cultural institutions, and even ordinary trips to the playground to observe urban and suburban wildlife.

The Whole Child Approach

A Brookline preschool that offers an enrichment program typically offers kids plenty of opportunities to develop their fine and gross motor skills through arts and crafts or outdoor play activities. The difference is that at many of the best Brookline preschools there is a multi-level curriculum that probably includes drama classes, language lessons, and maybe even weekly yoga classes, which by the way are a terrific way for children who may not be sports minded to get in some exercise. Yoga is also a good way for kids to learn how to calm down in times of stress.

A Bi-Lingual Education

At Brookline preschools a bilingual education is often part of the curriculum as well. If that’s important to you as a parent of a Brookline preschooler, then you should seek out the best Brookline preschool that offers bilingual education as part of its enrichment program. Learning a second language or even a third one is a terrific way for youngsters to build language skills such as vocabulary, sentence structure, and grammar. Bilingual education also increases a child’s appreciation of customs and cultures that differ from their own.

Financial Institutions are a fantastic business model to learn from when considering ever changing market conditions. Their traditional target markets are stable, but, the needs of an emerging market, the Latino market is extremely underserved. It is certainly not for lack of money. Many Latinos have zero debt and healthy saving habits. The question arises, are financial institutions doing enough to serve this population? Are they adapting to the Latino needs? The answer is complicated.

There are two types of Latinos in the USA. One is the immigrant seeking a better life and wanting the American dream, whether they came through the proper channels or not it is irrelevant. The second, are the Latinos that are born here. These are two very different groups of people with different needs and goals. Most immigrants bring their culture, traditions, and customs with them to the US. Those born here develop a blended culture that is both Latino and American.

Financial Institutions are taking notice and making strides to accommodate this very economically influential population. The main reason is that there is a lot of investment in education and developing trust. An untold detail is that in Latino countries, people do not trust banks and financial institution because of corruption. Everything is paid in cash and there are no debt or traditional credit scores. This means that the Latino community have cash, probably stored under their mattress or in a shoe box. This is very dangerous considering that a house fire could burn an entire life savings. Another scenario is they could become a target for robbery. This is a foreign concept for Americans. What is happening is a huge learning curve, educating them on the process of building credit, saving their money in a financial institution, getting loans (mortgage, car, etc.), and most important having trust in the financial institutions.

The younger generations that are born here learn from their parents and surroundings. There is still a disconnect from the importance of financial products, building credit, and how that process works. Many of these young people are just translating for their parents, explaining financial products, and become an intermediary for conducting business. You will notice an increase in bilingual support at many financial institutions for this reason. There is still a lot of work to do in this regard, and this process will take time.

However, more and more financial institutions are offering products specific to Latinos. Information is becoming available in Spanish and more financial institutions are hiring bilingual and multi-lingual speakers. It will be interesting to see how we as a country adapt to this important demographic. It is truly an untapped market that has an important function in our economy for growth and stability.

Secrets to productivity are your web presence, why not then cash the benefits of PHP web development services. Are you a business visionary, an entrepreneur who wishes to showcase his creativity, offerings to the world – choosing PHP web application development services is the option open to you.

At whatever point starting a new site, the primary thing to check is which constructed language is less demanding for you to utilize. Building up your site with PHP windows development can be a decent alternative. As this server-side scripting language is generally utilized for creating progressive & novel websites which are comprehensible as well as easy to use. In this exceedingly competitive world, every single person in addition to associations needs an inventively composed one-of-a-kind site for better connection with their clients & to steps forward in front of their rivals. PHP is loaded with multiple inbuilt frameworks, plug-in extensions and so on. Thus, can be effectively integrated with other programmings like HTML & Flash. Thus, helping the PHP programmers in making the distinctive sites from long range interpersonal communication (social networking) sites like Facebook, Twitter, corporate or government and so on. The majority of familiar & recognized CMS such as Joomla, Drupal, Zen-Cart & so on depends on PHP programming language making the substance of the site simple to modify.

Furthermore, the upsides of PHP web application development services are more than what examined. PHP web resolutions have a solid security backing so the potential outcomes of having any issue with the software after establishment are less.

Making one of a kind and creative site with PHP web development services for any individual’s sites is not troublesome as with codes and systems the site can be outlined and additionally tweak as indicated by his necessity. As one doesn’t need to pay a license expense and just needs to pay the hire dedicated PHP programmers free which are extremely moderate.

PHP MySQL development & PHP windows development has various supremacy which is the reason of its precedence too are as follows:

I. PHP is an open source, thus require no installation fee to be paid.

ii. The scripting is simple to code as well as easy to understand, just hire a PHP web developer to develop your site and rest you can do it yourself.

iii. A cross-platform support language, PHP functions on all major OS frameworks like Linux, Mac OS and so forth. It can be utilized to create web applications for personal sites to e-trade/e-commerce apps and group/community portals sites such as discourse discussions, online journals, blogs and so on.

iv. The elements of PHP are easy to comprehend and sites made with the PHP functionality have high information handling speed.

v. PHP web application development services are steady and profoundly compelling for your site.

vi. It is compatible with every single significant server.

vii. PHP web development helps the PHP programmer to redo the sites as per thoughts and prerequisites of their customers.

viii. The multi-lingual component has expelled all language boundaries and has expanded its utilization among the worldwide web group of onlookers.

For your forward-looking business, you require an avant-garde web innovation to coordinate your business. PHP’s adaptability, cost viability, and straightforward yet compelling capacities have made it exceptionally responsive in the PHP web application development world. The dynamic site made with PHP development will give your business a noticeable web presence in the online business sector.

You’ll read a lot about the advantages of trading currencies – yet most traders tend to turn advantages into disadvantages – due to a lack of understanding. That’s why 95% of currency traders lose money – and there’s one thing in particular that wipes out more trader equity than anything else – volatility! Most forex traders simply can’t deal with volatility.

Volatility, Deal with it or lose Money

Currencies are volatile, and in theory you can trade for thousands in profits every day, but the reality is:

Most traders make fundamental errors when trying to deal with volatility – and they’re wiped out. The main error they make is with stop placement. These traders are so keen to avoid risk, that they actually create it. They do this by placing their stops incorrectly – thus giving themselves no chance of winning.

Volatility is also more of a problem to deal with when you use leverage. Many forex brokers will grant up to 400:1 leverage – and if you can’t deal with volatility, then leverage simply compounds the problem.

Many forex traders are great at picking market direction, but these traders are continually stopped out by volatility. They’re frustrated when they get stopped out – and then see the trade go onto make $10,000 to $30,000 – and they’re not in!

Today, in our world of instant communications, currencies are more volatile than ever before. While you can see the big, long-term trends on any forex chart, the volatility within these trends is huge. This volatility will soon take your equity – if you don’t have a forex trading strategy to combat it – and lead you to currency trading success.

If you want to succeed in forex trading, then you need to deal with volatility, so here are some tips to help you:

1. Do you know what standard deviation is?

If you don’t, then look it up on the net right now – or read our previous articles. If you want to deal with volatility, then an understanding of standard deviation is a necessity.

2. You Need To Take Calculated Risks

Most traders have their stops too close, and although they appear to have a lower risk, the fact is that the odds are heavily in favour of their stop being hit. It may look a low risk on paper – but it’s almost a guaranteed loss in practice – making it high risk.

A perfect example is the forex day trader – who thinks they can place stops using daily support and resistance – and keep risk low. However, all volatility is random in short time periods – so they say goodbye to their equity.

If you want to win at trading, then you need to be like a successful gambler – bet big when the odds are in your favour – and don’t bet, when they’re not.

Only place stops behind valid resistance and support – and be VERY selective with your trading signals.

3. Accept Drawdown in Open Equity

When trailing a stop, be patient – you need to keep it back far enough, not to be taken out by market noise. This is hard when you see thousands in equity wiped out in a day. However, keep your currency trading system firmly focused on the bigger prize – and accept that you’ll have to take losses in the short term – to make longer term meaningful gains.

Volatility in forex trading is a huge advantage – but you must learn to deal with it correctly, in order to achieve currency-trading success. If you can’t deal with volatility and risk, then you’ll lose money – it’s that simple.

So, what are your plans for the Christmas? Not even a month left for the big day and there are so many things to do. And, how are you planning to have fun on that day? Here are some iOS and Android apps which can prepare you for the Christmas day.

1. Countdown to Christmas

You are a great Christmas enthusiast and you are eager to know, how many nights are left for Christmas. This app might be perfect to curb your Christmas enthusiasm and help you prepare for the impending Christmas day. The apps deliberately use the term sleep replacing nights. It indicates the number of sleeps you will get before Christmas.

If you upgrade the app, you will have a Santa tracker in the inventory, by which you will get to learn the daily sightings of Santa as well. You can even read his blog and news, and send him a letter to get your wish fulfilled this Christmas.

2. Christmas Ringtones

This is one perfect app to make your phone ready for Christmas. Get Christmas ring tones downloaded to your smart device. You will have your daily dose of the ringtones and that too, free of any charges. To top it all, this app caters to several cultures giving you a multi lingual Christmas experience. You will get hold of the app from the Google Store.

3. Christmas Recipes Lite

How to make Christmas a lip-smacking day to remember? Christmas Recipe Lite is just the thing for you. You will not need the help of an active internet connection in your smart device to get to know the recipes. Every recipes of this app is at your disposal offline. Only if you want this app to become your personal cook book, go online to update the recipe for the latest Christmas culinary creations. The recipes are perfectly illustrated with images, ingredients and elaborated with the steps, which should be taken for preparing that lip-smacking and sumptuous Christmas dishes.

The Christmas Recipes Lite is available at Google store for free.

4. A Charlie Brown Christmas

When it comes to interactive story book for Christmas, this app is meant to give you a wholesome Christmas experience. A Charlie Brown Christmas app relive the 1965 animated classic of Snoopy and the gang, who are trying to find the true meaning of Christmas.

This app comes complete with digitally re-mastered illustrations, animations and music perfectly optimised for your Apple devices. This highly interactive app from App Store promises to give you the greatest Christmas experience just at US $ 6.99.

5. 101 Christmas cake Ideas

Christmas is never complete without cakes and if you are in charge of baking the cakes for the Christmas, 101 Christmas Cake Ideas, is one of those apps, meant for you. Packed with numerous templates, patterns and decorations, this app is the perfect suggestion to make a cake literally a piece of cake.

Known specifically for its easy navigation features, you can get the app from Appstore free of cost.

6. Christmas Carol

Padworkx Digital Media Inc. has redefined Christmas Carol, the famous novella by Charles Dickens through this app. This 130 pages abridged text is backed-up by steam punk style illustrations and heart-pounding soundtrack, which wonderfully recreates the story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation in the best possible way.

The life-like interactivity of the story-telling will let you feel the darkness, despair, joy and life of the protagonist. You can get the app from Apple Appstore.

7. Appy Christmas

Appy Christmas is an app, which is much similar to the Talking Tom app for Android. Talk to Santa and he will talk back to you. Scratch his tummy and he will reciprocate. You can play around with Santa; you can poke him and stroke him and you can watch him turn into Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.

The app comes loaded with a comical silly voice, which is enough to make you laugh. It is available at the Appstore for free.

8. Glowtune Christmas

You have already baked the cake for the Christmas; played with Santa and prepared your dinner for the Christmas night. Now, it’s time to decorate your Christmas tree. The Glowtune Christmas app gives you experience of decorating an animated Christmas tree.

Just tap on the different colors present in the app and tap anywhere on the virtual tree to put them. Just press play and you will have the best Christmas experience through this app. The songs will develop by itself, each time you add or remove the lights. Add a bit of winter snow fall to make the Christmas experience genuine. You can save or remove your favorite creations if you wish to.

You will get the app at Google store for free.

9. Twas the Night before Christmas

The famous poem has been given a facelift by the iPhone application development company, Moving Tales Inc. The poem is experienced by the user in a playful and funny fashion. You can choose from the pre-recorded narration or you can record your own voice. Sound effects and music are easily comparable to any of Hollywood Classics. And above all, this app would mesmerize you with the animated surprises, it has in itself. Available at the iTunes at $3.99.

10. iCaroler

Christmas without the Carols is never complete. And there is nothing better than singing carols together. iCaroler helps in connecting you and other iCaroler around the world. You can choose from ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Auld Lang Syne’. There are professional a capella singers featured in this app, who can help you with the songs. Get this app absolutely free from the Appstore.

11. Where’s Santa?

Santa’s globetrotting side has been well portrayed through this app. You will follow Santa’s trail all around the world. The app will have an animated marker, which would describe the doings of Santa in the locations he visits. Every site wherever Santa goes, he would be dropping off a letter, which would be containing an Anagram. The app will have 10 such anagrams for you to solve.

Apart from this feature, this app would also have slider puzzle, advent Calendar, Santa’s Reindeer Barn and several other treat to have a grand time on the Christmas day. You can get the app for free from the Apple Appstore.

12. Christmas Card Creator

Christmas is the time for merriment and joy. And the best way to spread the merriment is to gift somebody a card. Christmas Card Creator for iPhone is giving you the chance to spread the merriment by creating Christmas cards on your own. You can share these cards through your Apple smart devices.

This app comes bundled with more than 200 backgrounds, character, ornaments, snowflakes and everything, which represents Christmas. Decorate the card the way you want. Get the app now and start spreading the merriment.

So, use these 12 apps through the 12 days of Christmas and have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Hallelujah!

I was born and raised in the western united states. During my early 20s I developed an interest in the history, geography, and cultures of the western hemisphere. So one day while at the book store I picked up a book about Canadian society. I learned a number of things but what really stuck with me was strictly about Canada or Canadians. The author wrote that while growing up he remembered thinking it was quite normal for a child to speak French to his mother and English to his father and being surprised to discover it was. That's it. That one statement made quite an impression on me.

Because of my interest in the Americas I dreamt of moving to Chile or some other Spanish speaking country. I wanted to explore the countries I was interested in, although I admit I also had developed an interest in the exposure to "hot Latinas" I would undoubtedly experience in Latin America. While attending the University of Colorado I discovered a study abroad program in Mexico so that's where I ended up going. It turned out to be a good choice.

In the end I wound up traveling back and forth to Mexico quite a bit. I even moved there for a time. During my first trip to Mexico I had met the desired "hot Latina." We are now married and live in the United States and have two children. Throughout all of this I remembered the statement from that Canadian author. When our first child was born there was no hesitation about whether we should raise our children with both Spanish and English from birth.

Myths

However, many people weren't so sure it was a good idea. We kept hearing concerns such as "won't she be confused by being exposed to both languages?" "She'll wind up speaking Spanglish." "It would probably be better to wait until she was already secure in English – then learn Spanish." I just kept reminding myself of that Canadian author growing up bilingual from birth. However, to back up my position with facts, I also did a little research and discovered I had nothing to worry about.

It has been proven with studies that a second and even a third language isn't really an obstacle of any kind for a baby. In fact, it's the best time to start a second language. Because of the way the brain develops and the way children learn language and language sounds, the ideal time to start learning 2nd and 3rd languages ​​is by age 3. But even if one waits until age 5 or 6 the child is in a good position to become fluent and free from foreign accent.

It is true that the child will do some language mixing, but as he or she ages the mixing will disappear. Just as a monolingual child eventually learns to say "you were hungry" instead of "you was hungry," a bilingual child will learn to separate the languages ​​and say "She's my friend" and not "She mi amiga." The best way to deal with this is to just be consistent and not mix languages ​​yourself.

Yes, your infant and toddler may get things confused from time to time – but so do all children. If you wait until your child is 10 or 12 to avoid "confusion" you will just be making it more difficult for him to learn. Ten or twelve is better than eighteen or twenty, but just as it's easier to learn a second language at ten rather than twenty, it's also easier to begin at age 3 than at 10. One of the great obstacles to learning a foreign language is the fear of looking stupid. People hold back when speaking to avoid embarrassment. A child of 3 years is not going to have the same inhibitions as an eight year old and especially a fifteen year old. There is also the question of whether your teenager will even want to bother putting in the required effort with another language.

Pros and Cons

There is an abundance of anecdotal evidence that raising your child with two or three languages ​​from birth will result in your child beginning to speak later than monolingual children. However, children generally start speaking anywhere from 9 months to three years of age. If a bilingual toddler starts speaking at age 3, it's hard to say for sure if he would have spoken earlier had he been monolingual. Whether bilinguals speak later or not is very much debatable but even if it does mean your child will speak late, I believe it's worth it. The advantages of being fluent in two or more languages ​​can include simple convenience to more career options and a higher income. Studies have also shown that multilingual children are above average with regard to reading and writing skills.

The main concern you'll have to consider isn't how multilingualism will negatively affect your child, but instead all the extra work you'll have to accept if you hope to succeed at fluency. At some point your child is likely to resist speaking the minority language, especially if there is no apparent need to speak it. Also, when it's time to start learning grammar, spelling, and reading you will have to find a way for your child to learn the same with the second language. If you live in a community where it's difficult to find resources in your child's second language it will take that much more effort. You will want to find toys, books, movies, TV and educational materials in the second language. Also important will be other live speakers of the second language such as friends, babysitters, and tutors.

Bilingualism or trilingualism will take patience and a lot of commitment, but in today's world of globalization I believe the rewards outweigh the work, even in mostly monolingual societies.

A Final Note

As for my five year old daughter, she will be learning Portuguese soon. I had hoped to start her on her third language at age 3 but due to a variety of circumstances we have postponed it for about age 6. (A bit on the late side but still relatively early.) She seems to have a talent and interest in language so I'm hoping she will also want to pursue French and maybe Dutch. But by the time she's ready to proceed to her fourth and maybe fifth language, I'm sure she'll have developed her own opinions. Perhaps she and her brother will elect to learn Russian just so they could have their own private language.

Free restaurant employee handbooks from trustworthy online sources provide the freedom and convenience that small restaurant owners need to save money and time in running their business. However, there are certain risks in using free restaurant employee handbooks without crosschecking whether the generic policies fit the needs of your restaurant business.

Before you publish your employee handbook, consider the following points:

1. Have you consulted a lawyer or a law firm to verify the contents of your employee handbook?

It seems easier to just download templates of free restaurant employee handbooks, and then, chop up the sections you need and reassemble them together. However, keeping the text in your employee handbook generic might present a problem in the future.

The additional expense of hiring a lawyer is worth it when you find your business in jeopardy over a labor dispute. The words you choose will determine the way your employees understand your work policies.

Your lawyer will also counter check your policies against those required by your state as well as additional sources, such as city ordinances and the policies set by the US FDA regarding food handling and sanitation.

2. Are you practicing at-will employment?

Employing at will may seem practical for a small business, but it also leaves you vulnerable to disputes, such as wrongful termination charges. This limitation is under the implied-contract exception, which is one of three exceptions to the at-will employment rule.

Although you hired an employee without a written and signed contract, the presence of a restaurant employee handbook translates into a binding contract within the following conditions:

a. When you state that an employee can be terminated due to “just cause,” you cannot fire any of your restaurant staff without the presence of just cause, which defies the nature of at-will employment.

b. When the employee handbook explicitly states the standard procedures for employment termination, and you suddenly fire one of your employees without due process, then you are liable for breach of contract claims.

c. Avoid using binding language, such as referring to a job as “career” or providing policies for promotion and demotion, which are not possible in at-will employment.

3. Have you made provisions for cultural competency in your restaurant employee handbook?

Most workplaces today are multi-cultural and multi-lingual. In recognition of this diversity, your employee handbook as well as postings in your restaurant should be translated into one or two other languages. The most common foreign languages include Spanish and Chinese.

Aside from tri-lingual translations, your restaurant employee handbook should also include provisions for holidays usually observed by other cultures. For example, Halloween may not usually require absence from work, but the Day of the Dead does. Visiting graves and participating in a procession are traditional practices for this special day in November.

Free restaurant employee handbooks are practical options compared to buying ready-to-use handbooks, but before you can use one of them as your own policy manual, you will have to tweak the content to strengthen the document’s legal validity and to adhere to accommodate diversity in the workplace.