Mango Languages

Travel Tuesday: No Speak Americano

Obviously, as the crazed Mango fans that you all are, one of the most exciting parts of traveling to far off lands is the opportunity to utilize all that you have learned and practiced (from the comfort of your own home, using your MP3 player, or even on your iPhone). As someone who has lived abroad, the prospect of conversing with native speakers is just as terrifying as it is exhilarating. What if my accent is horrible? Do I use the formal or informal? Which verb tense do I use? These fears can prevent us from making the most of our travels and speaking the language of the land. It seems so easy to slip back into our English comfort zone. If there is one piece of advice I can give you, it’s DON’T DO IT!!! Some of my best travel experiences have occurred in countries where I only knew a few words (hello, thank you, goodbye, etc.). You don’t have to speak a language fluently to earn the respect of the locals. Merely making an effort with these simple greetings and gratitudes (no matter how horrible the accent) is enough to create a connection with someone.

Take it from Benny Lewis, a world traveler originally from Ireland who has a self-proclaimed “love affair with other countries and speaking foreign languages.” At the age of 21, Benny only spoke English. A mere 8 years later, he speaks English, French, Italian, Esperanto, Irish, Spanish, Portuguese and German fluently, and his newest venture is American Sign Language. His website chronicles his language learning and his travels, and he even has an awesome video where he uses all of the languages he speaks to give a tour of his apartment in Berlin. Impressionant, non?!

I actually discovered Benny’s site through a co-worker who thought it would be of interest to me, and she was right! One blog post I found particularly relevant is entitled “What will I talk about when my language level is so basic?” He brings up an awesome point that really makes you think about trying to use that foreign language you studied way back in high school: To be interesting, you have to be interested.

So what does this mean exactly? It means that to have a great conversation with someone, you don’t have to do all the talking. Crazy concept for us Americans, eh? Being able to ask questions and let someone else do the talking benefits you in two ways. Firstly, you really get to know the other person and discover the ways in which we, as humans, are all alike, despite our areas of origin. Also, it allows you to sit back and listen if you are not as comfortable with your speaking skills! He also addresses the common fear that locals will be upset if you speak the language incorrectly. While I can’t say this is 100% untrue, I can say that in my experience, it is almost NEVER the case. Definitely the exception and not the rule. Usually, they are thrilled that you are making an effort to preserve their language and culture.

I highly suggest checking out Benny’s site and taking a look around. He encompasses all that is Mango Languages and definitely lives out our core values. And next time you travel, I encourage you to use your language skills in any capacity that you can. I promise you will not be disappointed. If nothing else, at least be a little more understanding the next time someone from another country speaks to you in broken English. Pay it forward for the next time you are abroad and struggling while asking how to find the restroom.

Have you ever visited a country where you did not speak a word of the native language? How were you able to get around? Did you learn anything by the time you left?

Tongue Twisters Around the World

Need a few Monday laughs? Check out this video of tongue twisters from around the world!

I’m not sure which is funnier: hearing someone attempt a tough tongue twister or thinking about their actual meaning!

This Finnish one looks tough:
“Kokko! Kokookko kokoon koko kokon? Koko kokonko? Koko kokon.”
Kokko (a first name)! Would you gather up a bonfire? The entire bonfire? The entire bonfire.

In the video, Fred from Montreal (at 1:38) said this French one:
“Les chemises de l’archi-duchesse, sont-elles sèches ou archi-sèches?”
The shirts of the duchess, are they dry or extra-dry?

How about this Welsh one:
“Pesychwch fel y pesychasoch gynt.”
Cough like you coughed earlier.

Do you have a favorite foreign language tongue twister?

Cheers to Oktoberfest

“O zapft ‘is!” These are the words (a Bavarian term meaning, “it’s tapped!”) that each year mark the start of Munich’s massive Oktoberfest celebrations.  And when we say massive (or riesig, as Germans would say), we really mean massive.  Last year’s Oktoberfest pulled in approximately 6.4 million visitors, who collectively consumed about 7.1 million liters of beer!  (In addition to almost 90,000 liters of wine, more than 119,000 pork sausages, and over 500,000 units of chicken!)

While many tourists of course focus on beer as the primary attraction of Oktoberfest, the festival truly has so much more to offer in terms of entertainment, culture, and fun.  Take for example, the fantastic Bavarian bands that play in the beer tents from morning to night.  They keep the crowds alive with a hearty mix of traditional songs, Schlager (kitschy pop music popularized during the 60s and 70s), and modern hits….stopping every so often to lead the crowd in a “Prosit”, or musical toast, after which the crowd lift their massive krugs of beer in the air and chant the phrase “oans, zwoa, drei, g’suffa!” (a toast in Bavarian dialect which means “one, two, three, drink up!”)

But the music isn’t the only thing to envy about the Oktoberfest.  They also serve an array of fantastic food, including Hendl (roast chicken), Schweinehaxen (pork knuckles), Kartoffelsalat (potato salad), Schoko-oderglasierteFrüchte (chocolate-covered or glazed fruits) and Lebkuchenherzen (heart-shaped gingerbread cookies).  The Lebkuchenherzen are sold on hanging ribbons and each are emblazoned with a term/phrase of endearment written in icing (like Ichhabdich so lieb = “I love you so much,” or Schatz = “sweetheart,” literally “treasure”).  Oktoberfest-goers like to purchase these treats for their significant others, so it’s not uncommon to see men and women walking around with a Lebkuchenherz hanging from their neck.  Some choose to eat the gingerbread right away while others hang it on their wall at home as a souvenir from the festival, allowing it to dry out and become an ornament.

And you can’t forget the rides!  Each year a number of carnival rides, including a full roller-coaster, are constructed on the Theresienwiese (meaning “the field, or meadow, of Therese”) in Munich.  The Theresienwieseis often just called “theWiesn” for short, so if you hear somebody saying “I’ll meet you on the Wiesn,” that means that they’re planning to meet you at the Oktoberfest!

In celebration of Oktoberfest, we are offering an Oktoberfest course for a limited time. So  jump into your lederhosen and learn how speak, and not just yodel,  German for Oktoberfest. Click HERE to start learning!

Do you have a special way of celebrating Oktoberfest?  Have you ever been to Oktoberfest in Munich?  Please share with us your favorite stories about this festive time of year!

Travel Tuesday: My Big Fat Bavarian Wedding

At first, the idea seemed crazy to me.  It was March of 2010 and I had just gotten engaged to my boyfriend of 6 years.  We were living in Germany, and he had spontaneously proposed during an afternoon hike close to his Bavarian hometown.  Following on the heels of our engagement, we made the decision to return to Bavaria the following year to celebrate for our wedding.  The only problem?  We also planned to move back to the States in the meantime!  In fact, the time between our engagement and our departure back to the States was so tight, that we were only left with one day to look for a suitable venue.  None of those we saw ended up being our “dream location.”

And so it was in April of that year, that I headed back to the United States with a full list of “to-dos” to complete from more than 3000 miles away.  From day one, I had to be realistic about many things: like, for example, that my wedding wouldn’t be full of the many DIY details that I had fawned over in bridal blogs.  It just wouldn’t be logistically possible to ship decorations over from the States, so I would have to make do with the linens provided by the venue, plus a few IKEA-bought candles that we could easily pick up over there (FYI – Germany has more IKEA stores than any other country, which explains why most homes there look like a page out of the catalogue!)

The inherent cultural differences between Germany and the US also posed a few additional bumps along the way, as I found that my expectations didn’t always align with the outcome or options I was met with.  Like the fact that none of my vendors asked for a deposit – except for my photographer, who was American.  While this may seem like a dream, given the cost of most weddings, keep in mind that deposits also offer protection.  It was only after our officiant randomly gave away our date 6 months after booking that we actually began to ask our vendors if we could put down a deposit (as you can imagine, most said yes!).  I also found it difficult to locate a baker that could reproduce the dream of a modern 4-tiered cake that I had held in my head for years.  In Germany, the norm still leans towards plainer, more traditional cakes – most commonly, flat heart-shaped cakes covered in fruit.

But the thing is, after several months of trying to contrive my wedding to be the event I had always imagined it to be – I stopped.  I realized that it simply wasn’t going to look like the weddings I had seen in American magazines…but that this was a good thing!   I had chosen to have my wedding in Germany for a reason, and I needed to embrace what it would mean to have a German wedding with American flair…rather than trying to have an “American wedding” in Germany!  Once I came to this realization, I began to treasure the cultural surprises, rather being than be thrown by them.  Not only did this make for a much less stressful planning experience, it also made for some incredible adventures too!

So while a having an overseas wedding meant that I had to give up control about many things, it also means that I now get to tell my kids I was married in a palace (Schloss Nymphenburg) and that I incorporated several different languages into my ceremony.  I also get to show them the formal pictures I took in Munich’s main square (Marienplatz) and recount memories of having tourists follow me to take pictures.  So if you’d ask me if I’d go back and change anything – I’d say no, not in a million years.

Have you ever attended a wedding or another type of celebration abroad?  What kind of cultural differences did you experience?

Travel Tuesday: The Hills are Alive

To say that The Sound of Music was a defining film of my childhood would be an understatement. It was the movie that instigated my passion for musical theater that still thrives today, nearly 23 years later. Aside from dancing around my room pretending to be one of the Von Trapp children, I was actually in the show twice. I auditioned for Gretl, the youngest child, and ended up playing Mother Abbess, the oldest character in the show. Go figure. Needless to say, when my friend Chelsea suggested a trip to Austria, I immediately became ecstatic at the prospect of fulfilling a lifelong dream: The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg!

Usually when I travel, I gravitate towards the local hangouts and other places off the beaten path rather than tourist traps. However, this was an extenuating circumstance and we made a lightning-fast exception on this trip! After all, what screams AMERICAN TOURIST more than a hop on/hop off Sound of Music tour? I might as well have carried around an American flag and a Lady Liberty head piece to identify myself as a foreigner. Chelsea and I were like two kids in a candy store as we sang songs and reminisced about our favorite parts of the film at each stop throughout the 4 hour tour. From the Nonnberg Abbey to the Frohnburg Castle to (just wait for it) the famous SOUND OF MUSIC PAVILION, we saw it all! Unfortunately, the doors of the gazebo were locked, so we were unable to recreate our own rendition of “16 Going on 17” like we had planned (Chelsea as Rolf and me as Liesl), but we DID snap tons of pictures and squealed with glee at each monument. Sometimes you have to suck it up and embrace your right to be a camera happy tourist.

As we headed back to Bastian, our host in Austria, we couldn’t wait to tell him all that we had seen! You can imagine our shock and awe when Bastian informed us that the majority of Austrians had barely even heard of the movie, much less seen it. You would have thought he had told us that Santa isn’t real. We couldn’t quite grasp the concept. You mean there are actually people in the world who did not grow up wanting a governess? Actual people who had never, not even once, sang “My Favorite Things” during a rainstorm? When he told us most Austrians only know of the movie from “silly Americans who come to Austria to go on the tour,” we nearly lost it. This was completely unacceptable. Since we were learning so much about Austrian culture from our time in Salzburg and Vienna (including important German vocab for young travelers, namely Prost, which means “cheers”), we decided it was only proper to complete the cultural exchange with a little American education. That night, Bastian brought over a projection screen and invited over a bunch of friends for an official Sound of Music screening. Though skeptical at first, we (obviously) won everyone over in the end. As though anyone would be able to resist Frauline Maria’s charm and taste in music. Even Bastian’s friends who barely spoke English momentarily forgot the language barrier and were singing along as best they could. While I’m sure none of them ever watched the movie again, I’m sure they will never forget that night and neither will we. As we said “So Long, Farewell” to Austria and our new friends, our hope was that we left as much of an impression on the country as it left on us.  A big Prost! to Austria – until next time!

What is the most “touristy” thing you have ever done on vacation?