The DJGG World Language and Business Challenge Competition
The Dorothy Jean Goins Graham (DJGG) World Language and Business Challenge (WLABC) is a yearly competition which has as objective to promote language, geography, and business knowledge in youths ages 9 through 17, particularly in economically disadvantaged communities.
The challenge consists of two competitions held on the same day.
The Language Challenge (morning)
and
The Business Challenge (afternoon).
Teams compete in these competitions at the city and state levels and the winner passes to the next stage of competition held in New York City (North American Finals). If they are the winners there, they then pass to compete in the International Finals which are held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) or Doha, Qatar (on alternating years) where they compete against teams from around the world.
The challenges promote and test the contestant’s knowledge in two areas:
The Language Challenge tests the understanding of world languages (with particular emphasis given to languages outside of the traditionally taught Western European Languages taught in US schools ie, Spanish, French, Italian) and the geography and geopolitical topics associated with these languages. For example, languages such as Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Mandarin Chinese, Icelandic, and Korean, are a few of the languages that are touched on (but are not limited to) in the competition.
The second challenge, The Business Challenge, tests the contestant’s knowledge of world financial matters. Here, the emphasis is on testing contestants understanding of principles of financial equities markets (primarily stock market) and currency markets, again with a geography and geopolitical slant.
Details of the competition and its format
Morning Language Challenge
Afternoon Business Challenge
Teams:
Girls Team: 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 years old girls with Boys: 10 & 12 years old
The captain of the team will be the 13-year-old girl.
Boys Team: 9, 11, 13 , 15, 17 years old boys with girls: 10 & 12 yrs old
The captain of the team will be the 13-year-old boy.
The Language Challenge Competition- Details
In the language challenge, either an audio and/or a visual/written caption of a language is presented to the competitors. Audio captions are played for approx. 30 seconds. After the first 10 seconds, if the language is not identified, a visual/written clue is presented along with the audio, however, at this point the contestants score is lowered by 2 points.
Alternatively, instead of an audio caption of a language, the flag of a country can be presented.
As a final alternative method of querying the contestant, a current news clipping can be shown to the contestant related to World News (sports or culture or politics) about a country. The latter news will usually (but not always) be taken from the daily International Edition of the USA Today newspaper.
In either of these cases, the contestant must then quickly:
- Name the language in question (4 points)
- Name the country (3 points)
- Name the Capital City of the country (3 points)
- Name another city that is not the Capital City ( 8 points)
- Locate the country on the large map ( 10 points)
- Name the current leader of the country ( 7 points)
Total points possible : 35 points
The map used will be a large World map which shows all the countries outlined but without the name of the country being placed inside.
The competition is held in tries by age group. The winner is best of 5 tries.
The Business Challenge Competition- Details
In the business challenge, either a logo of a company or a paper bill of the currency of a country is shown to the contestants.
The contestant must then quickly:
In the case of being presented a logo:
Name the company for 4 points
Name the product the company makes for 4 points
Name the city where the company is headquartered for 4 points
Name the company’s current “quaterback” ( the CEO) for 8 points
Name the company’s stock ticker symbol for 5 points
Quote the stock’s current price for 5 points
Total points possible : 30 points
In the case of being presented a paper note of the currency of a country then the contestant must:
Name the currency for 4 points
Name the country for 4 points
Name the country’s Capital city for 2 points
Locate the country on the map for 10 points
What is the exchange rate ( 1 US$ buys) for 7 points
How much does a Big Mac cost (in local currency) for 3 points
Total possible points : 30
Details of the trip to New York
In New York City the North American Finals Competion will be held at the Marriott Marquis Downtown (a short taxi ride from the United Nations Building).
The team will be taken to the United Nations Building in the morning on the first day of their stay. At the United Nations building they will be given a tour of the facilities (tour organized through United Nations – see www.un.org) and will also be given important information (related to the language and geography portion of the Challenge) which they will need in order to compete the following day in the WLBC North America Finals in New York.
After a quick light lunch at the United Nations, the team will be taken to Wall Street where they will be given a quick tour (Tour “The Wall Street Insider Tour” provided by the company The Wall Street Experience LLC – please see their internet site) and have their picture taken beside the Wall Street Bull. During their visit to Wall Street, they will also be given important information (related to Business) which they will need the following day at the WLBC North America Finals competition.
Details of Travel of the winning team in New York to Dubai UAE
The winning team in New York will travel to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, (or Doha Qatar – alternating years) to compete in the WLBC International Finals against teams coming from Europe, Asia (China, Japan, Korea), Australia and South America (Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela).
The Grand Prize-winning team in the International Finals gets to travel to a United Nations city (the one of their choice) which rotates yearly. The following are possible – North America (New York City), South America (Lima Peru), Europe (Geneva Switzerland or Vienna Austria), Asia (Tokyo Japan or Beijing China), Australia (Sydney), Antarctica (to an International Research Center on the continent of Antarctica aboard a Ice cutter UN research ship).
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