Mango Languages

Turkey Day!

Here in the States, we go nuts about Thanksgiving. And by we, I mean “I.” Accompanied by the usual thoughts of turkey, family, (of course) giving thanks, and napping from 4pm to 7pm, Thanksgiving is a holiday which is near and dear to our hearts.

But what about the rest of the world?  It turns out that Thanksgiving as we know it isn’t celebrated elsewhere.

Take our neighbor to north, for instance. In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated the second Monday of October every year. The idea is mostly the same, but the origin goes back to 1578, when Martin Frobisher held a celebration after returning home to Newfoundland following his search for the Northwest Passage. Not what you expected?

There are Thanksgiving festivals literally all around the world, and while they may not be related in any way, shape, or form to the pilgrims and corn stalks we all grew up hearing about, places like Croatia, Ghana, China, and India all have something similar anywhere from August to January in celebration of significant events or harvest seasons. Maybe there’s something in the air…?

So whether you’re eating corn in Vermont, yams in Nigeria, Moon Cakes in China, or participating in any other number of celebrations this season, just be thankful!

Do you have any interesting Thanksgiving celebrations you’d like to share?

Happy International Education Week!

We here at Mango believe that education along with culture is an extremely important combination to enhance everyone’s understanding about the world that we live in. Since world communication through foreign languages is our passion, we are very excited to celebrate International Education Week!

IEW is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. The week is dedicated to enhancing international awareness across the nation as well as to reinforcing the importance of the exchange of students and scholars across borders.

Initiated in 2000 by the US Department of State and the Department of Education, International Education Week emphasizes the importance of increasing student knowledge and awareness of the world’s cultures, peoples and languages, and affirms the critical role that international education and exchange programs play in fostering world peace.

How will you celebrate IEW?

Culture Day!

Every year in Japan on November 3rd, Culture Day (文化の日) is held across the country.

The holiday was originally held to celebrate the birthday of Emperor Meiji from 1868 until 1912. Culture Day eventually evolved from this to celebrate Japanese arts, culture, and scholarly accomplishments.

The different prefectures of Japan often host things like art exhibits, martial arts demonstrations, and parades. Some have certain themes, like traditional clothing or artwork, and others are more generic in nature.

Along with all of the regional festivities, the award ceremony for the Order of Culture is also held in Tokyo’s Imperial Palace. This involves the emperor doling out an extremely prestigious award to someone who has advanced or contributed to science, the arts, or culture in a significant way, though the recipient does not necessarily have to be Japanese. This is one of the most honored awards that can be bestowed by the Imperial Family.

Do you think the United States should begin celebrating culture with a national holiday? What do you think it would be like?

So Excited About Mango!

With all the new, fun, and awesome developments here at our Mango office, our Product Director has decided to show his excitement by sharing a poem with all the Mango fans out there.

Languages languages everywhere I see.

Foreign language smiling back at me.

French and Hindi sitting down to tea

Merci, and dhanyawad, happy as can be.

Conversing is fun now that I found the key

Mango makes learning, ever so easy

Here come Swedish and Dari making a plea

Next I’ll speak Azerbaijani

-Steve Perakis

As you can see the excitement level is at at high here. What languages are you excited to learn?

Celtic Colours International Festival

Since 1997, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia has been the home of the Celtic Colours (Yes, with a “u”) International Festival. For nine days in October, Cape Breton is Celtic-clad with music, dancers, story-tellers, and the like from all over the world: Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Spain, Denmark, Cuba, Germany, the U.S., and more.

This festival isn’t just located in just one place or locale.  It is held all across the island. There are concerts and festivals celebrating authentic Celtic culture from town to town, within chapels, community “centres,” and even local fire halls.

The Celtic Colours International Festival has been given a substantial amount of credit world wide, receiving three East Coast Music Awards in recent years.

So if you’re interested in friendly people, beautiful scenery, and spelling words like “centre” and “colour” incorrectly (kidding),  make this your destination next October!

Have you  listened to Celtic music? Do you know anyone who celebrates Celtic culture? Please share!

Fall is All Around

Hello friends,

When you look out of your window, do you experience as amazing fall colors as we do here in Michigan? Red, yellow, green, brown…  Monet would surely be inspired looking at this beautiful array of colors and would probably create another great masterpiece inspired by Michigan’s beauty.  Mother Nature was very gracious to Detroit these last few days. She granted us with lots of sun and warm air. What about smell? No, I am not talking about the pollution in the city! If you are outside, stop for a moment, close your eyes, forget about the world and smell….. I smell fresh fall leaves, a little bit of rain. And just when you think the gloom of winter is near, out comes the sun – oops, a sunbeam just touched my nose! I love fall!! Isn’t life amazing when we actually stop for a moment to enjoy all the beauty that this planet has to offer?

Looking at all the fall colors I always remember my home country, Ukraine, which is also very beautiful during the fall. Ukraine has very similar weather, breathtaking fall colors, and lots of apples.  Speaking of apples, this past weekend my one-year-old daughter enjoyed her first trip to the Cider Mill with my family and she loooooved the apple cider.  It is amazing because she gets the privilege to experience so many things for the first time in her life. Even though she might not be able to remember them for a long time being so young, childhood memories do build up and amazingly influence our being.

How do you experience fall?

Move Over Woodstock!

In Delhi, India, things have just wrapped up at the Qutub Festival of devotional music–an annual festival celebrating both traditional and classical Indian music which includes singing and dance.

The festival is held around the Qutub Minar, a five story red sandstone tower which is one of the most celebrated monuments in India0.  Originally constructed by an early Afghan invader of Northern India, the tower became a reflection of many different cultures’ architectural influences.

The actual festival held around this historic backdrop lasts three days and is hosted by the Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation. The festival’s aim is to attempt to preserve classical Indian music as well as contemporary.

Have you ever been to India? Have you ever listened to Indian music?

From Snail-Mail to Email

Hello Mango Fans.  This morning after talking to another fellow Mango about our study abroad experiences, it got me thinking about how technology has changed our lives. When he went on a study abroad trip a couple decades ago, communicating with people back home wasn’t as easy. One was left with the options of writing letters by hand and the occasional, expensive, landline phone call.  When I studied abroad last year in Madrid, I sent picture messages to my friends back home, updated my Facebook status through my Blackberry, and got to physically communicate with my family and friends for free with Skype.

We treat technology as a family member, even if that is a little co-dependent. You can’t blame us, though; it’s certainly made aspects of our lives easier!  We’re no longer forced to send letters through the postal service, book vacations through travel agents, shop in stores, visit the library for research material, or wait for our photos to be developed.  Thanks to technology, all of these activities can be performed either digitally or online.

Think about it, kids these days don’t have to get caught passing notes to each other, they can just text.  Instead of buying greeting cards at Hallmark we can send ecards for special occasions that get delivered instantaneously to multiple people. We are no longer bound to long-distance charges, either. Many folks have already kicked their landline phones to the curb and replaced them with Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) and mobile phones.

With thousands of applications now available at our fingertips with the use of iPhones, Blackberrys , and other smartphones (including the Mango iPhone application), people are more addicted to their phones than ever before.  The world we live in is moving at, what feels like, the speed of light when it comes to technology. For the most part, however, technology does us more good than harm: it’s reconnected us with old college roommates, helped us learn foreign languages, and encouraged us to exercise.

As you read this blog on your iPad, laptop, smartphone, or even TV screen think about the ways technology has changed your life.

Maybe in a couple more decades, when students sign up for to study abroad they can be teleported across the pond any time they choose. We’ll see…

10 reasons to celebrate 10/10/10

Today is a cool date…a perfect 10 day.

What does it all mean? I wasn’t sure until I started poking around the net.

This is what I found.

1. People love the number 10…they like top 10 lists (David Letterman loves these), and everyone wants to be a perfect “10.”

2. Historically, nothing significant happened on this date. Weird.

3. There is no mathematical reason for us to have a happy or bad day, but I wish you all the luck anyways. However, this date is considered lucky in Chinese culture, because the number 10 represents perfection or completion, according to the “I Ching,” an ancient Chinese text.

4. 42 is the ASCII code of the character *, which usually means “everything” in computer parlance.

5. 101010 (in Binary) = 42 Which means absolutely nothing.  Hmmm…..

6. The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy says that 42 is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.  But folks are still unsure of the exact question.

7. More than 7,000 events are expected to take place in 188 countries as part of the 10/10/10 Global Work Party, “the single largest day of carbon-cutting action in the planet’s history,” according to the event’s organizer, environmental advocacy group 350.org, which is attempting to raise awareness about global warming issues.

8. Chapels and halls are booked solid for today’s date: many nuptials and weddings are being shared today. More than 30,000 weddings are planned today across the country, according to Brides Magazine and online registries. I hope all those folks can remember their anniversary dates!

9. Today is also World Hoop Day. It was founded in 2006, and is dedicated to bringing dance, exercise, and toy hoops to children all over the world. That is just a cool mission!

10. Byram, N.J., resident Raymond Barnaba has been waiting quite a while for 10/10/10.  He was born on Oct. 10, 1910 and turns 100 today. Happy Birthday Raymond!  You deserve a special day!  I am excited for all the babies who will be born today too!

I hope you all enjoy the day as today’s date signals the end of repeating, single-digit dates, for at least another 90 years.

What did you do to celebrate 10-10-10?

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Stop Partying…

You may have thought Oktoberfest was drawing to a close, but worry not! German Unity Day is here to put a stop to your early October festival-drought.

German Unity Day–also the day of formal German reunification in 1990–is held every year on October 3^rd.  This day celebrates a few different German milestones, including the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918.

The Day of German Unity is celebrated each year with a festival in different cities around the country, alternating every year. For instance, the 2010 festival was held in Bremen, while this year’s ceremony will take place in Bonn.  Some other celebrations also happen in the capital of Berlin, and run right up against the tail end of Oktoberfest, though it’s nowhere near as wild.

The actual date which celebrates German Unity Day has changed in various places and at various times, having been held on November 9^th (The actual day the Berlin wall fell), and June 17^th (remembering a failed uprising of East Germans in 1953).

Do you have any German friends? Are they celebrating?