Mango Languages

It’s football time! Well, sort of

Countries around the world are gearing up for this year’s World Cup, which is set to be held from June 11^th to July 11^th in South Africa.

A little background: the first World Cup was held in 1930 by the Fédération Internationale de Football (that’s soccer in the U.S.) Association (FIFA), and was won by Uruguay.  Since then, it has been held consistently every four years except for 1942 and 1946, when it was not contested due to international involvement in World War Two.  Currently, Brazil leads all other countries in number of titles won (5 cups), followed by Italy with 4, and Germany with 3.

The last cup, in 2006, was held in Germany and saw Italy as its champion. The final match between Italy and France drew an estimated 715.1 million viewers. Compare that to the 106 million viewers who tuned in for the Superbowl, or even the entire population of the U.S., for that matter, which comes in at around 310 million people, and you can see just how popular this event really is.

What country are you rooting for in this year’s World Cup?

10 Ways English Takes You Out To The Ball Game

Yesterday was a reminder of the extent that American sports has infiltrated the English language and just how unique baseball is to the American culture.

The Mango Team got to spend the afternoon at a Detroit Tigers’ Game, where we sported our orange Mango shirts proudly. Much of our staff is international and many of our team members had never been to a baseball game. Jamie our accountant is from China, and she even printed out the rules of the game before she went. It was really hard for me to even imagine not knowing the names of certain aspects of the sport because baseball is so much a part of life here in the U.S. If you don’t the the game than you probably would have a hard time with these idiomatic phrases.

Think about it:
1. 3 strikes and you’re out (you only three chances to do it right)
2. Hitting a homerun (when you do something well)
3. Hit it outta the ballpark (same as above)
4. First Base, Second Base, Third Base (all sexual dating terms)
5. He is out in left field (when someone is thinking differently than the group)
6. Batter up (who is next in line to speak or present)
7. Being on deck (same as above)
8. Someone throws you a curve ball (tells you something you didn’t expect)
9. He made a bad call (when someone doesn’t see what really happened or make the right choice)
10. He is on the Home Team (someone who is on your side)

Can you think of any I missed?

We had a great time at the game – check out a clip of the fun below.

Can You Name That Foreign Language?

Working for a foreign language learning company has its benefits.  We are surrounded by the characters and sounds of many foreign languages on a daily basis.

I am always reading foreign language learning articles and ran across this fun exercise.

Can you name that foreign language? Click here to play!

See if you can guess which sentences are which language.  Please post a comment and let me know how many you got right!