Mango Languages

Mango Voted Best Newcomer

Last night we wrapped up the Travel and Adventure show in Los Angeles California. This was the second Travel and Adventure show we exhibited at; we were in Washington DC last weekend.

We had a great time! The show itself was such a cultural experience. There were 500 exhibitors representing cultures and countries from all around the world. Attendees could find information from sky-diving in Nevada to doing a home-exchange with families across the globe.  Mango Languages fit right in.

The LA Times hosted the show, and the 20,000 attendees were excited to find out more information for their next adventure. There was no lack of entertainment at the show with performances on the World Beats stage and info sessions at the Culinary Corner.

At the Mango booth, we were excited to let everyone know about Mango Passport, our downloadable consumer product available in 28 language courses. We showed demos and explained our language learning methodology. We got to hear people share their language learning stories and how much they were looking forward to learning a new language for their upcoming international trips.

We also had a blast at the exhibitor party Saturday night at the Grammy Museum. All the exhibitors got a chance to share their trade show stories and relax after a long day on their feet. Best part, Mango Languages was awarded Best Newcomer to the Travel and Adventure Show! We’re so honored!

Overall it was a great weekend. Lots of information, great people, and great fun! Can’t wait for our next Travel and Adventure Show!

Next stop… Travel and Adventure Show in Dallas.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by Learning Irish… for Free!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The Irish have been celebrating this holiday for over a thousand years. Today, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by people of all backgrounds in the United States, Canada and Australia as well as in other parts of the world.

Pubs will be open all day and night, there will be parades held across the country, and rivers will be dyed. From hunter to electric, the variety of shades of green will not disappoint today as people celebrate this Irish holiday.

History.com provides a ton of cool information about St. Patrick’s Day: everything from explanations of the symbols and traditions to recipes and places to celebrate across the country.  Check out these fascinating St. Patrick’s Day facts:

• Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dish. In 2009, roughly 26.1 billion pounds of beef and 2.3 billion pounds of cabbage were produced in the United States.
• More than 100 St. Patrick’s Day parades are held across the United States. New York City and Boston are home to the largest celebrations.
• There are four places in the United States named after the shamrock, the floral emblem of Ireland: Mount Gay-Shamrock, WV; Shamrock, TX; Shamrock Lakes, IN; and Shamrock, OK.
• There are 36.9 million U.S. residents with Irish roots. This number is more than eight times the population of Ireland itself (4.5 million).
• There are approximately 122,000 current U.S. residents who were born in Ireland.
• Irish soda bread gets its name and distinctive character from the use of baking soda rather than yeast as a leavening agent.

As you are picking out your favorite green attire, selecting a pub to go to, and loading up on corned beef and cabbage, don’t forget to brush up on your Irish.

Mango Languages is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by providing a FREE Irish course.

This course will allow you to connect with your Irish traditions to the fullest. You’ll be able to ask the bartender for a refreshing and authentic Irish beverage, impress your friends with your knowledge of just who the heck St. Patrick is, what he did to deserve his own day, and engage in all sorts of practical St. Patrick’s Day conversations.

Click here to get your FREE Irish Course!

How do YOU celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

Pattaya International Music Festival

This year, the Pattaya (not “Pad Thai”) Festival will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in Thailand. The festival is regarded as one of the largest international beach festivals in all of Asia and features over 100 artists from both Thailand and abroad.

With an expected turnout of over 400,000 people, this festival is most definitely going to be making a great deal of noise from March 18-20th.

There is literally something for everyone here.  From rock, to jazz, to pop, a little bit of everything will be featured at the festival.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, and is 46 days before Easter. It can occur anywhere from February 4th or as late as March 10th, and gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on one’s forehead as a sign of mourning and repentance.

A lot of the people here in the office celebrate Lent every year – a period of 40 days of fasting and reflection before Easter. Most followers of Christianity observe Lent during the period beginning from Ash Wednesday until Holy Saturday. Sundays do not count as a day of fasting because they are each observed as a “mini-Easter.”

Lent, which comes from the Germanic word for Spring time is often seen as a spiritual spring cleaning. This is why Lent begins with a symbol of repentance in the form of  ashes and oil on one’s forehead.

Have you seen anyone with ashes on their forehead today?

It’s Fat Tuesday!

Happy Mardi Gras Everyone!

This Tuesday we celebrate Mardi Gras which is French for “Fat Tuesday.” This day is celebrated before Ash Wednesday,  also known as the last day before Lent in the Christian calendar. The name “Fat Tuesday” comes from the tradition of eating rich foods made with, butter, sugar and other fats and meats.  This cultural holiday includes popular traditions such as wearing masks and costumes,  dancing, sports competitions, parades, etc.

Mardi Gras is celebrated in many different ways all around the world, making it a very unique and an international holiday. Some traditions consider Mardi Gras as the whole period of celebratory activity, beyond just a single day. Some of the cities that Mardi Gras is considered a big celebration are, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Barranquilla, Colombia, Sydney, Australia, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Quebec City, and many more.

In the United States Mardi Gras, or “Carnival” as some people call it, is most famous for the party that the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, hosts every year for the celebration. In 1857 parades were hosted and the lavish creation of floats became a yearly tradition. The “Krewes” were formed and exist to this day as organizations that build floats and throw beads and other gifts to the crowd during the Mardi Gras parades.

People travel from all over the world to New Orleans to experience the celebration of Mardi Gras.

Do you celebrate Mardi Gras? If so, what traditions do you follow?

Get Ready… Get Set… Travel!

March is an exciting month for us here at Mango Languages. Along with all the cool and exciting projects that we are working on, March marks the kick off of our attendance at the Travel and Adventure trade shows.

Planning to travel this year? The Travel and Adventure, the show for REAL travelers, will be hosting travel expos across the country this year promoting all things travel. Mango Languages will be exhibiting in Washington DC on March 12-13 at booth #1013 and in Los Angeles March 19-20 at booth #1132

Attend the Travel and Adventure expo to find your next vacation, attend informative seminars, experience hands-on adventure activities, see cultural performances, win prizes and visit the Mango Booth!

If you live in DC or LA or will be in town around those dates, make sure to stop by and get all the information you’re looking for regarding your traveling needs, including learning to speak a foreign language with our consumer product Mango Passport!

Can’t attend the expos? Planning an international trip? Want to know what the waiter is recommending to try while visiting Rome?

Go to www.MangoLangauges.com to try a free Mango lesson and see how you like it.  Whether you’re traveling for business, pleasure, or something in between, Mango
Passport is the perfect companion. Focused on practical conversation skills for common
situations, Passport delivers the language tools you need to navigate a new country, engage in polite conversation, and seek out authentic cultural experiences.

We hope to see you there!

So, globe trotters, where are YOU planning on traveling this year?

Hey, You Punched my Blini!

Maslenitsa, also known as “Butter Week,” “Pancake Week,” or “Cheesefare Week,” could possibly be one of the most intriguing religious holidays in the world.

A folk holiday that has not been officially celebrated for 85 years, Maslenitsa began again in 2002.  Its roots are actually in pagan ritual, celebrating the sun and the end of winter, though the festival is now Christian in nature. It is held the last week before the Orthodox Lent begins every year, and is considered the last time of year that Russian Orthodox Christians can eat things like milk, cheese, and other dairy products. Naturally, this is a time when many people like to feast, especially on pancakes (called “blini/bliny” in Russian). Blini are an essential food for Maslenitsa, and unlike American pancakes, they are usually topped with caviar, mushrooms, jam, sour cream, and butter.

Although the roots of the festival are interesting, some of the activities during the week of Maslenitsa are really uncanny. Take the group fist fighting, for instance.  It may sound violent, but this is all done in good fun to commemorate Russian military history, when soldiers supposedly fought each other in hand to hand combat.  Not unusual enough for you? In the past, tamers and their bears used to perform and wrestle during the festival. I’m sure you can imagine who usually won.

Other activities include bonfires, sledding, theater, puppetry, singing, and fireworks. So if you have an extra pair of boxing gloves and a week to eat some tasty pancakes, head on over to Moscow.

Do you know of any other holidays which have both pagan and religious roots?

And the Oscar goes to…

This weekend we celebrated the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. The celebration took place at the Kodak theater in Hollywood, California, where actors, directors, and designers came together to see which films and actors were going to receive the Oscar, the highest honor in film production.

Among many of the categories, Foreign Language Film, was one that I was looking forward to the most. The nominee list consisted of incredible and diverse films; Biutiful (Mexico), Dogtooth (Greece), In a Better World (Denmark), Incendies (Canada), and Outside the Law (Algeria). Each of the movies represented a unique and moving story, immersing the audience in different cultures and outlooks on the world we live in.

The Oscar went to In a Better World from Denmark, a dramatic film about violence, friendship, family, and the clashing of all three. On the topic of creating this film, director Susanne Bier said,  “Our experiment in this film is about looking at how little it really takes before a child – or an adult – thinks something is deeply unjust. It really doesn’t take much, and I find that profoundly interesting. And scary.”

I personally thought that In a Better World, was a beautiful film that tested human relationships as well as emotions through an incredible story. I recommend everyone to go and see it along with the rest of the nominated foreign language films.

Want to get the full experience of the film instead of focusing on the English subtitles? Brush up on your Danish through your library for free with Mango!

Have you seen any of the nominated foreign language films? Which ones? Do you speak the language they were filmed in?

I made it rain Mangos

We were excited to host Social Media Club Detroit this week at the Mango Languages headquarters with special guest speaker Mallory Brown from World Clothes Line. She had a great Mango story. We couldn’t resist sharing.

Be sure to check out Mallory Brown’s organization.  For every piece of clothing you buy, they donate one to folks in need all over the world. VERY cool!

Nordic World Ski Championship

Like to ski? Based in Switzerland, the Federation Interationale de Ski (International Ski Federation for all of you English speakers) is the organization that puts on the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo, Norway. This organization is the main international organization for ski sports, and consists of 111 national ski associations.

The competition is being held from February 23rd to March 6th this year. 50 nations are participating in 21 events, and if you are a ski enthusiast, then this is the place to be!

Do you ski?