Mango Languages

Learn a language with more Mango Passport content

More Mango Languages content = more adventure.

We are excited to announce the addition of Mango Passport Journeys Two and Three to our online language learning course offerings.

With triple the content for eight of the world’s most popular languages, Mango Passport now takes you even further.

Your Journeys await. Start learning today.

Formerly the original Mango Passport, Journey One features the basic tools you’ll need to get the most out of your trip, such as greetings, getting around and ordering food:

Journey Two goes beyond the travel-focused content learned in Journey One. In no time at all, you’ll learn how to describe surroundings, make small talk, plan leisure activities and more:

In Journey Three, build upon the knowledge gained in Journeys One and Two. Topics covered include discussing culture, addressing medical conditions, expressing thoughts and feelings and making plans:

Check out our blog posts all this week to hear about the journeys of users just like you and for the chance to win a free bundle of Mango Passport Journeys One, Two and Three in one of eight available languages!

Your Journeys await. Start learning today.

Do you speak tech?

“Just google it.”
“He texted me yesterday.”
“He liked my Facebook status.”
“Did you read my tweet?”

Our language is infused with technological influence. Consider this sentence:

“He liked my status.”

Ten years ago this would have been a weird sentence, implying that a man appreciated the speaker’s marital status perhaps? But today, we understand this to mean that a man clicked the “like” button underneath the speaker’s post on Facebook.

Speaking of Facebook, at this year’s f8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg discussed updates that will affect the language of Facebook:

“When we started, the vocabulary was really limited. You could only express a small number of things, like who you were friends with. Then last year, when we introduced the Open Graph, we added nouns, so you could like anything that you wanted. This year, we’re adding verbs. We’re going to make it so you can connect to anything in any way you want. It is all part of building this language for how people connect.”

Check out this fascinating article that examines the effect this change will have on the way we speak. You can also watch Zuckerberg’s entire keynote speech here.

What do you think of Facebook’s impact on language? Do you have examples of technology’s influence on vernacular?

Twitter > Textbooks: why social media is tres/muy/molto useful for language learning.

Twitter recently announced the release of the social networking site in 5 new languages bringing the total number of available languages to 17. As a student of French and an avid social media user, this news made me stop and think about the many ways in which social media (Twitter specifically) has shaped my language learning.

Since I first created a Twitter account, I began following French speakers who were influential in topics that interested me. In my case, that means I follow graphic design and marketing professionals from France and French-speaking Canada.

I was able to “eavesdrop” on their topical conversations to learn industry-specific vocabulary. Learning real-word vocabulary, grammar, and slang specific to my interests is something I could have never experienced reading out of one of my college textbooks.

Sorry to any of my dear professeurs reading this but here’s why I think social media is better than traditional advanced language-learning methods:

1. It’s more fun.

Let’s be honest: hanging out on Twitter is more fun than making conjugation charts or writing a literary analysis of a French poem. While learning the basics first is necessary to understanding and interacting in a new language online, once you build a foundation, you’re more likely to stay engaged with something fun that doesn’t feel like homework.

Bottom line: textbooks are expensive and they’re horrible conversationalists.

2. It’s real.

The language you read on Twitter from native speakers is unstructured and natural. People express themselves on social media the same way they do in real life.

If your end goal is to be able to communicate effectively with native speakers of the language you’re learning, the best way to do it is talk with them! If a luxury séjour in the south of France isn’t 100% doable for you right now, logging on to your social networking accounts might be a cheaper alternative (albeit minus the tan).

My advice on how to use the [excessive, in my case] time you spend on social networking sites to accelerate your language learning? Follow, respond to and make your way into the online social circles of native speakers of your target language.

In my experience doing exactly this, I’ve learned cultural nuances, new vocabulary, met fascinating people from around the globe and have even attended tweet-ups in other countries.

Not ready to start chatting-up foreign strangers? Understandable.
A great place to start is by changing the default language on your accounts to the language you want to learn. It’s a simple way to learn new vocabulary words and have them really sink in!

Do you have a success story or suggestion for ways to utilize social media to learn a language?

“Habla Espanol?”… “No, but I Do Speak Perl!”

To all the programmers and tech savvy people out there, this blog post is for you. Today we will be discussing languages. Yes, we here at Mango live and and breathe languages and one might ask, “What’s new about this blog post?” Well here goes.

Programming languages. A programming language is an artificial language designed to express computations that can be performed by a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine, to express algorithms precisely, or as a mode of human communication.

These languages don’t get enough credit, after all they are the reason we can provide our software to people around the world to learn foreign languages through the web. I’m talking about the C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, etc. To many this might look like a bunch of letters and symbols and doesn’t mean much, but it should. This is the back end of all communication on the machine that you are using to read this blog.

Someone may not know Italian, Spanish, or Chinese (although they will once they start using Mango Languages) but they do know C++ and Ruby, does that make them bilingual/trilingual? It may not be a language spoken by a whole population from another country, instead it’s a language that not many even know about, which makes it pretty impressive if you ask me. Having talked to our geniuses who help put our programs together, it really does appear they speak a foreign language among themselves, through computers. Cool Stuff.

What are your thoughts? If you speak Java are you bilingual?

From Snail-Mail to Email

Hello Mango Fans.  This morning after talking to another fellow Mango about our study abroad experiences, it got me thinking about how technology has changed our lives. When he went on a study abroad trip a couple decades ago, communicating with people back home wasn’t as easy. One was left with the options of writing letters by hand and the occasional, expensive, landline phone call.  When I studied abroad last year in Madrid, I sent picture messages to my friends back home, updated my Facebook status through my Blackberry, and got to physically communicate with my family and friends for free with Skype.

We treat technology as a family member, even if that is a little co-dependent. You can’t blame us, though; it’s certainly made aspects of our lives easier!  We’re no longer forced to send letters through the postal service, book vacations through travel agents, shop in stores, visit the library for research material, or wait for our photos to be developed.  Thanks to technology, all of these activities can be performed either digitally or online.

Think about it, kids these days don’t have to get caught passing notes to each other, they can just text.  Instead of buying greeting cards at Hallmark we can send ecards for special occasions that get delivered instantaneously to multiple people. We are no longer bound to long-distance charges, either. Many folks have already kicked their landline phones to the curb and replaced them with Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) and mobile phones.

With thousands of applications now available at our fingertips with the use of iPhones, Blackberrys , and other smartphones (including the Mango iPhone application), people are more addicted to their phones than ever before.  The world we live in is moving at, what feels like, the speed of light when it comes to technology. For the most part, however, technology does us more good than harm: it’s reconnected us with old college roommates, helped us learn foreign languages, and encouraged us to exercise.

As you read this blog on your iPad, laptop, smartphone, or even TV screen think about the ways technology has changed your life.

Maybe in a couple more decades, when students sign up for to study abroad they can be teleported across the pond any time they choose. We’ll see…

Learning By The Book(mark)s

I think, naturally, that there is a dichotomy in most peoples’ minds between the quality of traditional, book-based education in schools and that of newer online instruction–but is this separation really merited? I argue that it is not. More and more, schools which still continue in-classroom education are moving toward online instruction, yet there is a stigma as to the quality of online instruction when compared against traditional methods of learning.

Online instruction, as opposed to what you may be inclined to think, doesn’t necessarily replace book-based learning, but it does greatly enhance a student’s experience by offering supplemental materials and up to date content that books or CDs simply cannot.  Still being a student myself, I have been lucky enough to experience the educational system both before and after the emergence of online resources.

For example, while studying Japanese, I had the pleasure of receiving a book this year through my class which was accompanied by an online component. Aside from everything I would learn inside of the class time and through the text, I was also able to log in to the book’s website and watch videos or print off supplementary materials that  pertained to the subject matter. Being able to access any of these materials at any time soon opened the door to the best semester of Japanese instruction I’ve had yet. There is only so much that can be absorbed during a few hours a week of instruction, but being able to, at my leisure, interact with what I’m learning gives me that much more motivation to do it.

We all know a more motivated learner is also much more receptive to what he/she is learning, so it follows that creating an environment in which the student feels most comfortable is the most conducive to actual retention. This is where the popularity and effectiveness of online learning lies, and is precisely the reason that interactive methods of learning are quickly becoming the favored method of many educational institutions.

Have you had any experience with online learning, whether in school or on your own? Do you prefer learning by the book or by the bookmark?

Four Things to do When Starting a Web Business

1.  Finding your UVP

First of all what is a UVP?

It’s a Unique Value Proposition. A strong UVP makes potential customers want to use your product or service over your competition.

Often times for a start-up, it’s better to start small and work your way up.   At first, try serving the needs of a smaller group of people, and when you are successful at this, then you can begin expanding your presence in the market.  For example, let’s say you were going to start an online shoe store.  Rather than trying to go heads-up against a company like Zappos, you may want to specialize in oversized shoes or European styles and bring them to a U.S. customer base.

Something that makes you unique and has value in a niche area will help you to differentiate yourself from the other sites.  And most importantly for your survival as a business, this uniqueness will enable you to make sales.  If you aren’t unique or better in some way, then your business will be reduced to marketing reach and/or a price war.  This strategy represents an uphill battle for a startup that often ends in failure.

2.  Marketing Reach
There are so many ways to market your business online today.  Simple options, like Google adwords, as well as more creative strategies, like viral marketing, can be very effective ways to grow your web presence.  Anything you decide to do requires a good plan and the willingness to experiment.  One thing is certain: balancing the business with marketing and sales is an exercise that couples quality decision making with experimentation.  Not everything you try is going to work, but you have to be persistent in analyzing your returns.  This equips you to make the best decisions possible.  Go with what works, and toss what doesn’t!

3.  Technology & Getting Up and Running
This is a gray area, and it is very difficult for most people to understand.  All kinds of questions face the web entrepreneur:  Should you buy out of the box software and customize it?  Should you build custom software?  Should it be a combination of both?  How much will it cost?

This is not a simple topic and there is no cookie-cutter answer for these questions.  As a matter of fact, I will go into more depth on this area in future blog posts because there is just so much to think about.

Before you dive into a technology solution, you should consider your UVP and your marketing strategy.  These things will determine what’s important for you.  Then as you think about the features your website or web  application will need, you can make strategic technology decisions that integrate best with your overall goals.

Then you should define in as much detail what you want website to do.  I would even go as far as to hire a designer to make story boards that show the look, feel, and flow of the site.  Once you’ve gone through this exercise, you will be able to decide if the software package you need even exists (adequate for customization), or whether a better option would be to build your own custom solution.

One small suggestion from my early days as a web developer:  I wanted to plan for every feature that I could ever possibly think of that I might need.  This can be a daunting task.  And really, at the beginning it can also be unnecessary unless you plan on implementing it all right away.

I discovered that it was best to let the website evolve organically.  Once you actually create the first version of your website, you will learn lots of new things from seeing how people react to it, your success in the market, etc.  Usually at this moment, you discover that there is a big difference between what you originally thought you would need, and what the customers actually desire.  All that time spent planning for the fancy applications (that never got used) was wasted.  Therefore, at first you should narrow things down only to what you need to get started, and then just make a plan for meeting those objectives.  Your successes and failures will pave the way for your future.  You’ll figure out what to do when the time comes, and it will be based on much better information than what you had before.

4.  Capital and Longevity
A few years ago, I read somewhere that the number one reason businesses fail is that they didn’t have enough time to get off the ground.  From my personal experience I believe this statement to be true.

In the beginning you need to create a survival plan that allows you to have enough time to make the mistakes necessary for success to follow.  This means you should plan on spending more startup money, or be willing to live on less of a salary for a while so that you can get things off the ground.  Be prepared for the reality that you may open your website up to the public, but without the fanfare you were expecting on day one.

Don’t let this discourage you!  This is the rule, not the exception.  You have to keep working it until you find the right formula.  Having the willpower and resources to survive gives you the opportunity to experiment and play with your business model until you get it right.  Really, ultimately, that is the biggest secret to success with an online business.  And although it may seem easy at times, it will put you through a roller coaster of emotions.

This is the reality of starting a Web Business.  Welcome to Entrepreneurship! Do you have any stories or tips you want to share?

New Voice Comparison Feature!

We are excited to announce that on Monday, Mango launched our new voice comparison feature.

This feature is automatically included in your current subscription at absolutely no charge!

Voice comparison helps users improve their speaking skills.  It’s completely integrated within each Mango Basic Lesson (currently not in the Complete version).  All you need is a microphone and a passion for perfectly proper pronunciation!

This is how it works:  after a user completes a slide, the voice compare button will appear.  They can then record their voice and play it back to hear themselves speak.  In addition, they can align a visual representation of their recording with the native speaker’s version for comparison.  Users may adjust their pronunciation until it lines up with ours–they’ll be speaking like a native in no time!

Want to see a one-on-one demo? Contact us at a 877-Mango-11.

Great Review of Mango Languages by Icrontic

We were very excited to read this review of our online language learning software from the great folks over at Icrontic.

Icrontic is a “rad” site that covers PC hardware, gaming, and the tech industry in general. If you are into the Web 2.0 space, then they are a must read site!

Thanks Steven from Icrontic for your thoughtful and kind review!

5 Things That Make Good Web Based Software.

As the internet is evolving so are all the great things you and you can do on it.  The Internet is no longer just a place where people go to find information.  It is the place people go to learn, talk to friends, manage their schedules, and much much more.  The web is becoming very interactive.  The tools for creating web based software applications are becoming better and better everyday and the benefits to the user are enormous.  From being able to access your applications anywhere to ease of collaboration with others.

The problem that is being addressed now is…how do you create good software for the web?

There are several challenges that people face and many web applications today are frankly not that good.  So here is a list of things you may want to consider before creating a web application:

1. Never forget who you designed the software for.  The user not your own ego.  Make sure the software works the way the users wants it to work so they find it valuable.  The advantage of the Internet is that it’s easy to collect good user feedback.

2. Simple and good interface design is as important if not more important for users as all of the great things the software can do.  It’s nice to have bells and whistles, but if you need a 400 page manual to figure out how to do what you want to do…then what’s the point.

3. Make sure your team stays abreast of technological advancements.  Every day there are new tools that help to make it easier to access your software and use it.  Software is no longer built once and then sold for years.  Constant, progressive improvement is the key to creating excellent web based software

4. Great web based software is not created by one person, it’s created by a team that carries multiple talents.  The key is to get great designers, programmers, and specialists in the field you are creating the software in to work together in harmony to create something remarkable.

5. Have a passion and a belief in what you are creating.  There are too many people today who are trying to make a quick buck on the Internet.  It’s nice to make money, but you will never create something that is great and useful without people who really are passionate and believe in what is being created and put their heart and soul into doing it.

The Internet has recovered from the .com bubble, but still we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg  of the potential of this new and revolutionary resource.

What do you think makes good web based software?