Mango Languages

So Excited About Mango!

With all the new, fun, and awesome developments here at our Mango office, our Product Director has decided to show his excitement by sharing a poem with all the Mango fans out there.

Languages languages everywhere I see.

Foreign language smiling back at me.

French and Hindi sitting down to tea

Merci, and dhanyawad, happy as can be.

Conversing is fun now that I found the key

Mango makes learning, ever so easy

Here come Swedish and Dari making a plea

Next I’ll speak Azerbaijani

-Steve Perakis

As you can see the excitement level is at at high here. What languages are you excited to learn?

Video: Mango Languages Promos – Webisode 3

We have some very fun Mango Gear and there is one Mango who can’t get enough…Steve. Check out how he “tests” the promotional items for us.

Which is your favorite Mango item?

Apples to Apples: Fall Culture

On this crisp Fall Friday, I couldn’t help but get excited for some of my weekend plans. What are my plans? I’m glad you asked. This weekend I plan on making my annual outing to the Franklin Cider Mill here in Michigan. There is nothing that I associate Fall more with than the Cider Mill. The hot apple cider, the greasy paper bags full of hot donuts, caramel apples, glazed pecans, candy corn; the variety of feelgood deliciousness is the epitome of Fall around here.

This got me thinking about the Fall culture, and why going to the Cider Mill comes to mind when thinking about Fall. Apples; they are the driving force behind everything that the Cider Mill is now today. For hundreds of years, apples have been supplying a delicious and nutritious fruit allover the world. Johnny Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed brought from Europe a small variety of apples. Farmers allover the United States took these varieties and combined two or more apples and named them what they thought appropriate. Years ago Europe had as many as 350 different varieties. Today there are as many as 7000 different varieties throughout the United States. Approximately 20 varieties of apples are used for marketing purposes.

Going to the Cider Mill is an event. Families and friends stand in line while catching up on community news, children play by the stream near the Mill while feeding ducks, and other sit at picnic tables enjoying the Fall goodies they just bought. One can smell the donuts from about a mile away. It’s almost impossible to only have one donut, if you have hot cider nearby you might as well buy at least a half dozen donuts. Better safe than sorry

How do you celebrate Fall Culture?

Video: Mango Languages: The Gong, Webisode 2

We celebrate every new relationship we make, and we do that with a genuine Chinese Gong.

Check out what the Gong means to us and how uniquely a couple of our sales guys hit it!

Which one did you like better Dave or Marco?

Core Value: Quality

Quality is something which every person strives to achieve in every single thing they do.  At Mango, quality is something that is expected without question.

When Mango puts out language courses for literally millions of people, every inch of our program needs to be pristine and without error.  Mango Languages, for this reason, is a company that welcomes constructive criticism, suggestions, and ways to make anything the company does better. Every course is checked for quality by everyone in the process, including each of us in the office.  This is to ensure that the end user will not experience anything less than our best.

What do you think? Why does quality work matter?

Core Value: Integrity

Mango Languages’ core values define our work culture. These values play a key role in every single thing that we do throughout the day here at Mango. Our six core values are:

1. Entrepreneurial Spirit
2. Quality
3. Innovation
4. Integrity
5. Fundipline (hybrid of fun and discipline)
6. Positive Attitude

Today’s post is about #4, Integrity. I, personally, think this the backbone of all of our other core values. Without it, the other core values truly cannot exist.

We take this core value very seriously at Mango. From course creation all the way to the promotional goodies we dole out, every step in the process is taken with careful consideration. It is embodied in everything: from double-checking the quality of every slide, to our Language Learning Specialists’ everyday interactions, even to the highest level of the company where all of our largest decisions are made.

Integrity is what really sets us apart from a lot of other companies, and not just in Language Learning. I think that having this core value be reflected in everything we do from day to day helps us to keep a good “head” on the company shoulders.

What do you think? Does integrity translate into good work?

Fall is All Around

Hello friends,

When you look out of your window, do you experience as amazing fall colors as we do here in Michigan? Red, yellow, green, brown…  Monet would surely be inspired looking at this beautiful array of colors and would probably create another great masterpiece inspired by Michigan’s beauty.  Mother Nature was very gracious to Detroit these last few days. She granted us with lots of sun and warm air. What about smell? No, I am not talking about the pollution in the city! If you are outside, stop for a moment, close your eyes, forget about the world and smell….. I smell fresh fall leaves, a little bit of rain. And just when you think the gloom of winter is near, out comes the sun – oops, a sunbeam just touched my nose! I love fall!! Isn’t life amazing when we actually stop for a moment to enjoy all the beauty that this planet has to offer?

Looking at all the fall colors I always remember my home country, Ukraine, which is also very beautiful during the fall. Ukraine has very similar weather, breathtaking fall colors, and lots of apples.  Speaking of apples, this past weekend my one-year-old daughter enjoyed her first trip to the Cider Mill with my family and she loooooved the apple cider.  It is amazing because she gets the privilege to experience so many things for the first time in her life. Even though she might not be able to remember them for a long time being so young, childhood memories do build up and amazingly influence our being.

How do you experience fall?

Video: Mango Languages: Fiesta Friday, Webisode 1

We are a hard working language learning software company who like to have fun, too.  Here is a peak into the Mango Languages Corporate Culture.

Here at Mango, We Love our Coffee!

While working here at Mango Languages I have learned over time that many of the Mangoes are big coffee lovers. I was elated to find this out, since I myself am very fond of this warm, caffeinated, and delicious beverage. It all started with the gathering of Mangoes by the industrial coffee maker to pour themselves a cup o’joe throughout the day.  Then once we moved to our new office I was greeted by a 12-cup Mr. Coffee every morning along with a collection of sweeteners and creamers. Later I started seeing the variety of ground coffee brands along with a french press here and there.  I have decided to dedicate this Monday’s blog to coffee, after all more than 1400 millions cups of coffee are drunk every day worldwide.

Really Fun Facts About Coffee:

-Hawaii is the only state in the US that grows coffee

-70% of the world consumes Arabica coffee, which is mild and aromatic. The remaining 30% drinks Robusta, which is more bitter-tasting but has 50% more caffeine than Arabica.

-Coffee grows on trees

-The bean is actually a seed inside of a bright red berry

-Coffee is the second most traded commodity on earth, after oil.

-The term “Americano” comes from America GIs during WWII. They would order espresso with water to dilute the strong flavor.

-The term “cup of joe” comes from American servicemen (GI Joes) in WWII being seen as big coffee drinkers.

-Brazil produces around 40% of the world’s coffee supply.

-October 1^st is official “Coffee Day” in Japan

-65 countries in the world grow coffee. They are all along the equator, within the tropics.

-It takes 40 coffee beans to make an espresso

-A coffee tree lives for between 60 and 70 years.

Who knew!

Ready to become a coffee expert? Follow this chart and you’ll be ordering grande, extra hot, non-fat, triple lattes with extra foam in no time.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/coffee

What do YOU love about coffee?

Video: Mango Open House

We had a great time! Finally was able to edit the video.

Thanks to all that joined us!