Mango Languages

Vote to Save Libraries

This week, the House of Representatives will consider an amendment to the FY2011 Continuing Resolution that is critical to libraries – one that would eliminate all Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
funding including Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding.

Amendment #35, submitted by U.S. Rep. Scott Garret (R-NJ), seeks to zero out the Institute of Museum and Library Services, eliminating all federal
funding specifically for libraries.

Together, we can make a difference. Contact your representative and oppose Amendment #35. Go to http://www.house.gov/ and enter your zip code to find out who your representative is and how to contact them. Call or email him or her to oppose Amendment #35 to the Continuing Resolution!

Here is an email template to send to your representative:

Subject:  Oppose Amendment #35 to the Continuing Resolution

Message: Libraries are essential to every community, and federal funding is
critical for ensuring library resources and services remain available.

This is an important vote and I appreciate your Opposing Amendment 35 to the Continuing Resolution submitted by U.S. Rep. Scott Garret (R-NJ)

Don’t forget to Vote!

“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.” -Ray Bradbury

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?

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?

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?

Design Act 2010

All things industrial design are included in this festival held from August 31^st to September 5^th by the Moscow Centre for Contemporary Art (The Winzavod).  Being the 4^th annual Design Festival, this has been done in a similar fashion by major cities like Tokyo, London, New York, and Vienna.

This festival has transformed from a professionals-only event to a country-wide Festival, increasing the interest in industrial design among both young people and consumers.  While this may not be your typical “PARTY” Festival, it is still attended by people of all ages, classes, and professions.

Anything from bicycles, to decorations, to various multimedia and filmmaking exhibitions can be found during the course of the festival.

If you’re interested in design, this is definitely something you’ll want to check out!

Now Everyone Can Learn a Foreign Language

A few weeks ago I attended a birthday party for a friend of the family. The house was full of kids and grandkids who all came to celebrate a special event. In between the main course and dessert I got to interact with the kids, playing charades, singing karaoke, playing hide and seek, etc. Seeing how the kids selectively communicated with each individual, fascinated me. Their parents were born in Russia and they were leaning Hebrew in school, yet they were born in the United States. It was “Zdrastvuyte” (hello in Russian) to all the guests, “Shalom” (hello in Hebrew) at school and “Hey, what’s up?” among friends.

This is exactly what I thought of when I found this article from USA Today, More children Learn More Than One Language. This article is all about children learning to speak multiple languages at a very young age in our globalized world.

“More and more people are aware of the importance of teaching another language to their child because we are in a global world,” says François Thibaut, who runs The Language Workshop for Children, which has nine schools around the East Coast.

Language study for children is based on immersion, he says. Kids sing songs and play games to help develop language comprehension skills. “This is a natural way of learning language.”

The articles goes on to state, that when children start learning languages at birth, they have the capacity to learn many languages at once without getting confused — because, as the brain develops, so too does the ability to separate one language from another.

Early language learning has been shown to enhance verbal development, as well as reading, writing, and social skills.  Now that Mango Languages offers Little Pim, a child doesn’t have to have an ethnic background to learn a foreign language.  Since we’ve launched Little Pim as part of Mango Languages earlier in the summer, kids ages 0-6 can learn foreign languages in a fun, easy, and effective way. Kids who know more than one language not only have the opportunity to think creatively in a different language but also more opportunities to express themselves through communication.  This is so exciting!

Oktoberfest!

It’s that time of year again–don your lederhosen or your dirndl, and get ready to party with 6 million people who can drink you under any table in Munich.

Lasting 16 days and ending the first Sunday in October, this bash is 200 years old. What began as 40,000 people in Munich celebrating the marriage of King Ludwig I to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen is now the largest annual festival in the world. This year’s festival will begin the 18^th of September and last until October 3^rd.

The local name for Oktoberfest in Germany is actually “Wies’n”.  This is derived from Theresienwiese, the name of the field on which the festival was originally held, and is actually where the festival still takes place.

Have you celebrated Oktoberfest? Tell us about it!

ALA Rally on Capitol Hill

The Mango Languages Team joined over 1,000 librarians to march on Capitol Hill to help bring attention to the budget shortages in Public Libraries.

Have you written your Congressional representative to tell them how important libraries are to you?

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?

Mango goes for a walk…

Recently Mike Teshuba, co-founder and Chief Technology officer of Mango Languages, was featured on our local news channel because he has a new desk.

A new desk?  You might wonder why would this be newsworthy…well it is a TreadDesk.

Yes…such a thing exists. You can walk and work at the same time.  What a concept?  We actually have a couple in the office. And we may get a few more for meetings.

Here is the link to the WDIV/Channel 4 Video Story.