Mango Languages

Happy belated Hangul Day!

Hangul Day or Korean Alphabet Day is celebrated October 9^th in Korea to honor the promulgation of the Korean alphabet, Hangul (한글), by King Sejong in 1446.

During his rule, the people of Korea were often unable to express themselves because understanding of the Chinese language was reserved for the elite.  By inventing Hangul and making it accessible to all, King Sejong made it possible for the masses to better communicate and feel a sense of unity around the language.

Do you celebrate Hangul Day or any other holiday related to a language?

Take a look at the language in these creative representations of the alphabet from all around the world!

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?

Right to Left Languages

There are many languages that are written in a completely different direction than English.  Actually, the script is what decides directionality.

This can cause lots of confusion when learning a language.  When entering text, most of our computers won’t allow for changing text directions unless you create special settings.

Some examples of Right to Left Languages include:

1. Arabic
2. Hebrew
3. Farsi
4. Pashto
5. Urdu

Japanese, Chinese, and Korean are also challenging as they can be written either way depending on usage.

When learning a new language, be sure that you understand which direction the language should be written.

What other languages have interesting direction issues?