Mango Languages

Share Your Story!

One of the best parts of working at Mango Languages is seeing the product in action. Our company’s core purpose is to enrich lives with language and culture, so we love to hear from people who have used Mango Languages to do just that!

Last month, Mango traveled to Philadelphia for the Public Library Association 2012 conference. We had the chance to talk to many librarians who shared success stories of those who had used Mango to learn a language. Check out the video below to see some of our favorites!

Do you have a story to share? How has Mango enriched YOUR life?

Mango Monday: Do you speak Texan?

Do you speak Texan?
Mangoes traded the snowy Michigan weather for some southern hospitality (and sunshine) while attending ALA Midwinter 2012 in Dallas, Texas!

While we got a little taste of the south, we gave a taste of mango smoothies to stoppers-by at the Mango booth. Attendees could also check out demonstrations of the Mango iPhone app, Little Pim and learn some Hindi!

While we were sporting tie-dye and mango smoothie sugar-buzzes, we saw many wonderful familiar faces, made great new friends and heard inspiring language learning success stories.

We even got a short lesson in “Southern English” from a few true Texans, y’all!

Check out some pictures from our adventure and let us know: did you drop by the Mango Languages booth at ALA Midwinter in Dallas this year? Do you still remember how to say, “where is the bus station” in Hindi?

Travel Tuesday: Mango Goes Big, Y’all!

Though us Michiganders cannot complain about the winter this year (it has been the mildest winter that I can ever remember), the prospect of escaping the snow and heading towards the sun is enough to get us packing… quickly. Needless to say, we are quite looking forward to getting to Dallas, Texas this week for the American Library Association 2012 Midwinter Conference!

The office is going to seem pretty empty, as 14 Mangoes will be heading southwest to participate in the bi-annual conference. From Mango smoothies to giveaways to demonstrations to typical Mango insanity, our booth will be bustling. Be sure to stop by Booth #2253 and say “howdy” to our staff! We are looking forward to another exciting show.

Is anyone attending the show? Is this your first time at ALA Midwinter? What conferences/exhibitors are you most looking forward to seeing?

Travel Tuesday: Riding the Information Wave

Military Librarians met a few weeks ago from December 4-9 for the 55th annual Military Libraries Workshop, and Mango Languages was there “Riding the Information Wave.”

With temperatures at 70 degrees with plenty of sunshine, Norfolk, Virginia served as a lovely backdrop for the over 150 MLW attendees, and 44 major library industry vendors at the annual event.  Everywhere you looked, the town was beautifully decorated for the holiday season, from sculptured mermaids adorned with bow-tied wreaths to the lights along the harbor of Norfolk.

The successful MLW event kicked off with some pre conference sessions, including service meetings for all Military branch personnel on December 4th. Pre-conference sessions started on Monday, 5th December. The traditional welcome and vendor appreciation reception was held on the evening of Monday, 5 December.  Most of my focused time was spent discussing new products, technologies and services targeted for the Military Library user base.  The winners of the 2 Mango Languages door prizes were Cindy Shipley: United States Marines Corps (Mango Passport Gift Card), and Trevor Riley: National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.  This year’s events included: DTIC boot camp, Veterans History Project workshop and presentation, offsite at the MacArthur Museum and Archives; presentations on information overload, managing your library’s managers, analysis of intelligence, Coast Guard mission and information resources and for a little “after hours” fun, a pub crawl, a ghost walk, and much, much more. The highlight of the workshop was a banquet held aboard the Spirit of Norfolk on Wednesday, 7th of December, with a jazz theme.

Mango enjoyed being a sponsor of this year’s MLD (Military Library Division of SLA) Board Meeting, and especially enjoyed meeting clients, new prospects and vendor colleagues in Norfolk, the cultural heart of the Hampton Roads region. We were also excited to give out our brand new Mango camo bags!

MLW 2011 is a team effort with representation from all military services and other communities within the division.  This year’s MLW hosts were the National Defense University and Joint Forces Staff College, both valued customers of Mango Languages.  Mango Languages supports peace-keeping efforts of all branches of the Military and Government Agencies worldwide.  Mango had such a blast in Norfolk, and we are anticipating seeing you all at MLW 2012!

Can you guess how many Foreign Languages are used by active duty members of the U.S. Military?

You’re never too old.

The  Mango marketing team was recently in Dallas where we met Lewisville Public Library patron Raleigh who told us his Dad’s story using Mango:

“I want to tell you about my Father. He is 88 years old and he decided he wanted to learn Spanish. We went to the Lewisville Public Library and registered him. He had to learn the Internet but once he did, he completed the Mango Basic course as well as the Mango Complete course. Each course was very understandable, great layout, great way to learn a foreign language. It’s all thumbs up for Mango from us!”

We love hearing stories about the young, old and everyone in between learning with Mango! Do you have any stories about learning a language very early or very late in life?

Seeing Mango in Action

Seeing the Mango program in action will never get old.

This past weekend, members of the Mango Languages marketing department headed down to Atlanta, Georgia, in tie-dye t-shirts for a Travel and Adventure trade show where we had the opportunity to demonstrate our product to travel enthusiasts and professionals.  This being my first trade show since I started working at Mango, I was thrilled to see the program through the eyes of interested language learners of all ages and backgrounds.  Here are a few things I learned:

1. Age is just a number.

Seeing children walk up to our booth at the show and immediately begin to pick up on a foreign language within a few minutes of a demonstration was phenomenal to see. Also seeing a 70-year-old man, previously convinced he was too old to learn a language, pick up on it within a few minutes is even more amazing.

2. Language is personal.

Hearing stories from attendees about why they wanted to learn a language made me realize just how amazing an endeavor learning a language is. People genuinely want to connect with other people and cultures; whether it’s to feel connected to the rich art history on a trip to Paris or to finally have a conversation with their Spanish-speaking future mother-in-law.

3. People love tie-dye.

We proudly sported tie-dyed t-shirts at our trade show booth. Say what you want about tie-dye; deep down, everyone loves it.

So, what feature do you like the most in the Mango products? Are there new features you would like to see?

Travel Tuesday: Combining Business and Pleasure

Working in events, I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel from time to time for work. Unfortunately, this was not the case for a recent trip to Puerto Rico taken by Jason Teshuba and Ryan Colpaert, our CEO and Director of Sales and Marketing, respectively. The rest of us Mangoes spent the week slaving away at the office while Jason and Ryan spent a week relaxing on the beach in sunny San Juan. Ok fiiiine, I will admit that their trip was not without purpose (and I promise I’m not still bitter). Our two jetsetters made their way to Puerto Rico to attend the 77th Annual World Library and Information Congress Conference and Assembly! The conference took place from August 13-18 and, according to the website, it brings together over 3,500 participants from more than 120 countries. The exhibition portion of the conference boasts over 80 exhibitors with a combined buying power of all delegates estimated at more than 1.2 billion dollars! Needless to say, it was an exciting opportunity for Mango Languages to attend the show for the first time, especially given this year’s exotic location.

Because most of our Mangoes are curious travelers and always seeking out cultural experiences, Ryan and Jason decided to extend their trip and get a little taste of what San Juan has to offer. And being a self-proclaimed foodie, I was most interested in what they actually DID taste. Jason came back raving about his new favorite food, mofongo. A specialty of Puerto Rico, the dish combines mashed plantains with any combination of meat, seafood, and vegetables. Traditionally, the dish is prepared in a mortar and pestle, but can also be made in a food processor, depending on how authentic you want your experience to be. Either way, I will selflessly offer to taste any mofongo you decide to prepare. I’ll bring the Puerto Rican rum.

Aside from food and drink, Jason and Ryan also took advantage of Puerto Rico’s famous rain forests. While in San Juan, they had the opportunity to take a tour of El Yunque, pictured above. Additionally, the guys caught an awesome cultural performance of native dances at the conference, shown in the video below. I’m thinking we should try this out in the office. Nothing like a little choreography to break up the work day!

That, coupled with lounging in the sun, does not sound like too stressful of a work trip, no? That, my friends, is what we call “fundipline.” A combination of “fun” and “discipline,” it is one of our core values we are always striving to emphasize over at the Mango office (and the creation of a new word exemplifies “innovation,” another one of Mango’s core values.. TANGENT ALERT). Work hard, play hard is what we are all about. Rather than fly in and out solely for the show, our Mangoes decided to take advantage of their time in a new and exciting place. I think it goes without saying that I will be joining the guys for the 2012 conference in Helsinki (where we will hopefully indulge in some Finnish sweet bread, called pulla). Until then, adios and hei-hei!

Can you recall a time where you have been able to combine business and pleasure to gain a cultural experience?

Video: Mango Mania Recap

We cannot tell you how much fun the Mango Mania Road Rally was for us! We loved all the videos, posts, tweets and the live fun we had at the ALA 2011 Mango booth and our VIP Party.

Who would have thought that a language learning program could motivate so many people in the community into doing random acts of kindness and random acts of craziness!

Check out the Mango Mania video to see the five teams who participated.

Who will be joining us next year?

ALA 2011 in The Big Easy

This year the ALA Annual was held at the New Orleans Convention Center, a massive venue.  We quickly realized that a  building 1.2 miles long means a LOT of walking!  This time around, we had a better-than-ever 20′x30′ booth to showcase our product with a nice, well-lit, long smoothie bar.  Our Mango Smoothies were even more desirable for those attendees who completed the journey to our aisle.

Overall, the show was a great success. The focus this year was on the highly anticipated iPhone Application that was made available in the App Store  just hours before the show. As curious potential customers and veteran Mango fans came to our booth we passed out Mango badges, gave personal demonstrations of the unique features that each Mango course has to offer–such as the phonetic pop up, cultural notes, Organic Learning slides, and our Voice Comparison feature.  We made sure that each attendee left educated and Mangofied. Our fans came to our booth raving about Mango, and we couldn’t pass that opportunity up without getting some incredible video testimonials. We truly have the best fans!

This year the Mango VIP after party took place at The Rusty Nail on Constance Street in New Orleans. This year’s party topped all the previous ones!  With the Mango drinks flowing, the open patio, and the incredible Jazz band, the crowd of roughly 200 guests seemed to have a blast. It was so much fun to see all of our guests participate and meet the Mango staff in our traditional game of Guess that Mango. What made this year’s after-party even more unique was the announcement of Mango Mania’s 2011 winners. Five teams made up of our ultimate fans battled it out through Mango challenges to show their love for Mango and potentially win $2500 toward a Mango subscription and an iPad2 for each teammate. The winner of Mango Mania 2011… (drum roll) … was Team MO (Mango Obsessed)! Their name says it all. The two teammates, Amy and Jessica, gave it their all while completing Mango-specific challenges all the way through New Orleans. Check out their Facebook Fan page to see amazing photos and videos of their Mango Mania journey. Congratulations Team MO!

We would like to thank everyone who has made this weekend in the Big Easy amazing!

We can’t wait to see you all again at ALA Midwinter 2012 in Dallas!

Follow and Support the Mango Mania Teams

Mango Mania is in full throttle. Mango Mania is a road rally where teams will complete Mango-related challenges on their way to New Orleans for ALA 2011. The teams have two groups of challenges: those designed to be completed before ALA, and those that they will have to do on the way to New Orleans and while actually there. Each team should post pictures/videos on their Facebook page to show that the challenge has been completed. Each challenge is judged on creativity and completion.

Here are some of the challenges they have to do before ALA:

-Find 5 patrons who will either give a Mango testimonial or say something they learned from a Mango course.  Share video.

-Create a work of art using items found in your public library. Share pic/video.

-Record a video of you giving a Mango demo to patron(s) while making it interactive.

-Visit another Mango Library (Library with Mango subscription) and bring them a homemade gift. Share pic/video.

Also, through Mango Mania teams have Bonus activities to choose from:

-Represent Mango as much as possible by getting Mangofied in as many challenges as possible: i.e., decorating your Mango shirts, face paint, etc.

-Race to get to the Mango Booth and toast with Mango smoothies in a foreign language.

-Team with most social media activity. We will monitor/count number of teams’ retweets and other people tweeting with your team’s hashtag. Also, number of fans  on your Facebook page as well as  comments from your fans.

-Get a person/representative from another language learning company to say “mango” in some way.  Share video.

-Get a story about “Mango Mania” and your experience published in a credible news outlet, like a local newspaper. Share link.

The Mango Mania teams have been so awesome and creative while showing their true Mango colors! Follow your favorite teams on Facebook and Twitter! (Remember they get judged on how many people “like” their Facebook fan page and how many people follow them on twitter). Here are the teams:

Team MO (Mango Obsessed) #goteammo

Team Mang(eauxs) #TeamMangeaux

Team Energy = Mango C2 #EMC2

Team ALA Think Tank #alatt

Team Fluent Five #FluentFive

The winning team will be announced at Mango’s VIP Party on Sunday June 26th at the Rusty Nail. The grand prize is a $2,500 Mango subscription for the team to split and an iPad for each team member.

Feeling left out of the fun? If anyone else wants to complete any of these challenges feel free to get creative and post a photo/video on our Facebook fan page. If your pic/video stands out you might receive a Mango prize!

Good luck and have fun!