Mango Languages

Haxey Hood

What happens when a Lord, a Fool, and Eleven Boggins get together with a big leather tube? Haxey Hood.

Every year on the 6^th of January, save for those which fall on a Sunday (in which the event is moved to the 5^th), people gather around in the town of Haxey, England, to push a leather tube, called the “hood”, to one of four pubs where it will remain until the same time next year. The game itself resembles rugby, and may very well be the oldest local tradition in England.

The origin of this custom is a bit cloudy, but the most accepted story is that sometime during the 14^th century, Lady de Mowbray, the wife of an Isle Landowner, was out riding when her hood blew off. 13 farm workers in the field rushed to help her and chased the hood down for her. In exchange, she donated 13 acres of land in exchange that this practice be reenacted every year.

There are thirteen characters from this original tale represented every year in this game: the lord, the fool, and eleven boggins. After everyone is gathered around and warming up is completed, the Sway Hood is thrown up in the air. Everyone then begins the game to try and get the Sway Hood into one of four pubs in either Haxey or Westwoodside. The game ends when the Hood arrives at one of the pubs and is touched by the landlord from his front step.

At any time there are about 200 people in the “Sway” (the fight to push and pull the actual hood), and around 1,000 people watching.

Have you participated in anything like this before?

Happy New Year… From Around the World!

Happy last day of 2010 every one!

Coming from a Russian background, New Year’s Eve has always been a big deal in my family. Although I have never been a part of a New Year’s celebration in Russia, I have heard countless stories about the traditions and customs.

In the Russian culture New Year’s Eve is a very important holiday, one which people look forward to from January 1st. Amongst the most popular New Year symbols is a New Year’s Tree called Novogodnaya Yolka which is topped with a bright star and decorated with various sweets. Another popularly celebrated New Year tradition is the arrival of Ded Moroz or Father Frost (Santa Claus) and his granddaughter Snegurochka the snow girl. They bring in New Year presents for the good children and keep them under the New Year’s Tree.

New Year is more of a winter vacation in Russia. Schools remain closed from January 1 till January 13. The main New Year celebrations begin from night of December 31. People usually prefer to spend the day with their friends and family members. Party clubs, hotels and discotheques are all jammed up at the time of New Year. The main New Year celebrations come to an end on January 13th, when the country celebrates the Old – Style New Year. This day is not declared as a public holiday but is celebrated to mark the beginning of the year according to the Julian calendar.

I love New Year’s Eve because it is celebrated differently all around the world. It marks the end of one year and all that is to come in the new year. Different cultures everywhere have different customs and traditions that make New Year’s Eve unique to their country.

Here is a list of some other interesting customs:

* Traditionally, the Spanish eat 12 grapes at midnight—for good luck.
* Displaying paper cuttings in China is a traditional custom.
* Mochituki—making New Year’s rice cakes is a fun Japanese tradition.
* In Thailand’s Songkran (The Water Festival), people get wet!
* Eating Ttok-Kuk (Rice Cake Soup) is traditional on the Korean New Year.
* Eating black-eyed peas for luck is a tradition in southern U.S. read more…

How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve?

I hope everyone has a very Happy and Safe New Year’s Eve! Happy 2011!

Christmas Around the World

According to Andy Williams, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. In recent history, it may also be the most sensationalized holiday as well. Countries all over the world from the U.S. to Italy, or even to Japan celebrate this holiday every year, even if only a small portion of their populations are Christian. It’s really quite amazing.

For instance, every year in Russia, the holiday of Christmas is observed on January 7^th through the church. This is because the Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian Calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian Calendar used in most Western Countries. More and more these days, Christmas is being celebrated on the 25^th of December in Russia, though Church celebrations are generally still on the 7^th.

By contrast, Japan celebrates Christmas one day early, on the 24^th of December. This is an example of a country where Christmas is generally observed mostly as a commercial holiday. Stores begin having sales around the beginning of December, donned with Christmas trees, Santa Clauses, gifts and decorations, but only about 1% of the population of Japan is actually Christian. Christmas cake with strawberries and whipped cream is the general Christmas food, along with fried chicken. Wild!

It’s so interesting to think about all the different ways Christmas is celebrated throughout the world. Whether it has mostly religious undertones, or commercial undertones, Christmas is a genuinely recognized time of good will and gift giving around the world.
Tell us about how you’ve seen or heard of Christmas being celebrated! Do you and your loved ones celebrate it any certain way?

Mango Voice Talent

Have you ever aspired to be a voice-over talent? If you have an interesting and appealing voice, you would be a good candidate for the job.  Just imagine – getting paid for speaking!

Many people enjoy recording for commercials, television promos, animation, audio books, radio and in other fields. The voice-over talents are in a high demand in the language learning industry, especially foreign-language speakers.  However, those who think the voice-over work is a piece of cake are wrong! It is not just the ability to talk to the microphone and being able to create special effects in the recording software. Voice-over is a profession that requires lots of studying, training, practice and perseverance.

If studying is something you like to do, I will share a very easy tip on how to be a better voice talent: just smile! The specialists and instructors in the field have discovered that when a voice-talent is smiling while reading the script, his or her voice becomes more appealing and softer. That’s easy, right?

Have you ever worked as a voice-over talent?

The Four Days March

If you’re any sort of walking or travel enthusiast, this event is for you. Every year, beginning in the oldest city in the Netherlands–Nijmegen– the largest annual walk in the world is held.

The march, which began as a military event with some civilians included, now attracts over 40,000 walkers, only about 5,000 of which are military. These marchers are committed to walking either 30, 40, or 50 kilometers a day for 4 days, depending on their age and health.  That’s about 5 marathons worth.

At the end of it all, all the marchers who complete the task are rewarded with an official Dutch decoration which can be worn on a military uniform. It is fully named the “Cross for Demonstrated Marching Skill,” and different medals are awarded signifying multiple completions of the walk.

At least year’s walk, over 60 nations were represented, and the surrounding festivities attracted over 1 million people. Participants are able to meet people from all over the world while walking, and you can experience local towns, coffeehouses, restaurants, and historic buildings.  How cool!

Have you ever participated in any international events like this? Tell us about it!

The World Cup: Bringing People Together One Game at a Time

Watching the World Cup go through it’s process of selecting host cities this week was fascinating. So many different countries with such varied cultures all vying to host the same international spectacle is not something we get to witness often. And what an eventful year! Not only does Russia get to host the games, forcing them to pump billions of dollars into their infrastructure to prepare, but there is also going to be the first World Cup in the Middle East when Qatar hosts the games in 2022. The average American may not realize the significance that the tournament has on world culture, but it is huge. The World Cup is an international, cross-cultural, unifying event rivaled only by the Olympics.

It got me thinking about the unification of cultures across our world. We tend to see different countries as incredibly foreign…no pun intended. We are far too often focused on the things that separate our cultures, rather than the things we share. It is profound to think that a simple game like soccer can be such a touchstone for so many citizens of the earth, regardless of where they are from.

On some level, the same could be said for language. When I was in high school, I opted to take Latin instead of Spanish. I can’t recall why…probably because there was a cute girl in the Latin class. That’s not the point. The point is, having a background in Latin has helped tremendously while studying new languages on Mango. I have found that Latin is the base for most of the romantic languages and elements can still be found in all of them. To think that a language spread out across the world and morphed into the dialog of so many different cultures is kind of awe-inspiring. Here is something that the citizens of these countries use everyday…language…and it can all be traced back to one source. Without even realizing it, the very words they say connect them to people on the other side of the Earth.

So, whether it’s a sport or simply the words we use, times like this show us that there are many things that join us with the rest of the world that we don’t usually consider. Almost as much fun as exploring the world and discovering all the things that make us unique, is exploring the world and finding the things that make us the same. I have absolutely no idea who is going to win the tournament in ’18 or ’22, but I know the world will be watching it and talking about it. Thanks to Mango and my old Latin teacher, I might just understand what they have to say.

The more I learn here on Mango, the smaller the world gets…that’s one of my favorite things about it.

The First Day of Hanukkah

Thursday marks the first day of Hanukkah this year, which occurs any time from late November to early December on the Gregorian calendar (the 25^th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar). Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days, starting at sunset the night before the first day – that’s tonight.

The word Hanukkah comes from the Hebrew word for “dedication” or “consecration”. This holiday marks the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem in around 162 BCE. It is said that there was only enough oil to burn the flame inside of the temple for one day, however it lasted for eight- hence, eight candles to be lit.

Today, Hanukkah is celebrated both communally and just with family. Although it is still ok to work, many people like to head home a bit earlier to make sure they can light their candles at nightfall. There are also some traditional foods eaten around this time, depending on regions and ethnicity. Many are fried or baked in oil, like latkes (potato pancakes) and pontshkes (jam filled doughnuts).

We have a few people who work in the office celebrating Hanukkah this year. Do you know anyone celebrating the holiday this year?

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?

Now There’s Even More Mango to Love!

From the our new website, and new product features, to new courses and languages, the Mango elves have been very busy around here.What are we celebrating this fine, foggy, Friday? We have just launched an additional 9 language courses!

What are the new language courses? Well, I’m glad you asked:

Farsi Complete 2.0

ESL French Complete 2.0

ESL German Complete 2.0

ESL Greek Complete 2.0

Hebrew Complete 2.0

ESL Italian Complete 2.0

Korean Complete 2.0

ESL Korean Complete 2.0

Vietnamese Complete 2.0

In the spirit of the new language courses, here are some fun facts:

-Did you know that Farsi is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and many other countries?

-Do you know how to say, “coffee with milk” in Vietnamese? (‘Ca-phe sua’- which has a lovely flavor, but beware… Vietnamese style coffee is strong!)

-The Italian language evolved from the Latin of the Roman Empire.

-Hebrew, a Semitic language, is one of the oldest languages in the world.

You learn something new everyday!

We are so excited about all these new courses! Now you can travel to France, Germany, Vietnam, Israel, Iran, Italy, Greece, Korea and many other amazing travel destinations and be able to communicate with the locals!

Which language/s are YOU excited to learn?

Asheville International Children’s Film Festival

Here’s something for all of you movie enthusiasts out there. The Asheville International Children’s Film Festival is held in North Carolina and features over 100 films from over 30 countries.

Aimed for anyone ages 3 and up, the festival aims to provide culturally diverse cinema to promote intelligent discourse and critical thinking later in life. Festival events include an opening night gala, a pancake breakfast, workshops, and school field trip film experiences.

If you’d like to check out what films are being shown, click here.

Do you think that film is a good medium for promoting the importance of culture?