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Aug 27

Mango Language Resolution – Weekly Recap 1

August 27th, 2012 by Leave A Comment

We started our Language Resolution campaign with one goal in mind: to help you learn a language by 2013.  We hear excuses all too often: “I wanted to learn a language this year, but couldn’t find the time to practice” or “I ran out of steam and lacked motivation.”  This year, we’re not going to let that happen.  Mango’s got your back – not to mention daily tips, challenges, and motivation to keep you on track.  All you have to do is stay tuned to our pages on Facebook and Twitter.

Screen Shot 2012 08 27 at 1.03.16 PM Mango Language Resolution Weekly Recap 1

Last week things got off to a strong start on Monday when we challenged our followers to write their grocery or shopping list in the language they were studying.  On Tuesday, we followed this up with a vocab challenge focused on greetings and terms of gratitude.  Translations of “thank you” and “goodbye” were shared in a handful of languages, including French, Arabic, Japanese and German.  Plus, Philip E. shared his personal translation of those phrases into “Southern U.S. English,” as ‘obliged’ and ‘later’.  Thanks for giving a mini-lesson to our Detroiter Mango crew, Philip!

Wednesday is all about motivation, so we shared a touching story from one of our patrons based at the Kent District Library in Michigan.  Having been in a long-distance relationship for 6 years, she tried everything to learn Swedish without success – including Rosetta Stone.  But after starting Mango, she experienced more improvement in a few days than she had done in years!  Read her full story here.

We dedicate Thursday to a roundtable discussion of issues and challenges faced when learning a foreign language.  Last week we focused on how to successfully learn vocabulary.  Our followers had fantastic tips for tackling this challenge, including: using flashcards, playing video games, reading foreign signs or packaging, and creating associations with English words that have a similar sound.  The one thing that everyone seemed to agree on is that repetition is key, no matter what method you use.  We also agree with this point – which is why repetition of phrases and vocabulary is an important theme in Mango’s courses.

On Friday, we closed out the week with one final challenge for our followers: to “like” or “follow” a foreign company’s page on Facebook or Twitter.  This is a great way to infuse foreign content into your feed!  Haven’t had a chance to complete the challenge yet?  Commit to doing it today!  It only takes 5 minutes.

Ready to get things geared up again this week?  We’ve got a week chock-full of fun challenges, motivating inspiration, and helpful tips/tricks ahead!  Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages daily to keep updated.  Remember, 2012 is the year.  #LanguageResolution.  Let’s do this together.

Jul 10

Thanks, St. Clair County Library System

July 10th, 2012 by Leave A Comment

Article 3 img1 904x1024 Thanks, St. Clair County Library System

A big Pirate shout out to our friends at the St. Clair County Library System (Michigan), where our program was recently celebrated in a major way. At their Pirate Day on June 27, patrons and staff members of all ages dressed up like scallywags to promote the Mango Languages Pirate course. Patrons walked the plank, viewed a live fencing demonstration, created a parrot for a pirate craft, and had everyone laughing with pirate jokes. Kids and parents alike had a swashbuckling good time! Everyone was thrilled to learn how to speak Pirate through Mango (in addition to our other 40+ languages) and every pirate went home with some booty – a Mango bookmark!

What an awesome way to get your patrons talking – in any language! Virtual “high five” to the St. Clair County Library System!

Would you like to host a fun event like this in your library?



Submit your email address and phone number below and we'll have a Mango Rep contact you with some creative ideas to bring patrons into your library.
Oct 03

Do you speak tech?

October 3rd, 2011 by Leave A Comment

FBLike 200x120 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?

Sep 19

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

September 19th, 2011 by 2 Comments

ParlezVousSocialMedia 200x138 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?

May 10

Mango goes to the Bees Awards

May 10th, 2011 by Leave A Comment

225479 219980874695053 117984228228052 887572 3774820 n2 200x133 Mango goes to the Bees AwardsLast week, I got the chance to go to San Francisco, California for the Bees Awards.  The awards program honors the best social media marketing practices of the year.

The day started off with a social media seminar that focused on international social media practices. I got to meet Guy Kawasaki who signed my Enchantment book. So fun, I have been following him in the social media space for over 3 years.

In the evening, we all dressed up and moved to the Legion of Honor where the actual awards ceremony was held. Such a great venue, there were statues from Rodin, including The Thinker. Really neat space.

Mango Languages sponsored the student brief section of the awards. We created a project brief and several students from around the world submitted ideas. They were all great ideas. From Facebook Games to cool new product ideas. We actually had a vigorous debate on who should win. Great submissions! We plan on using one or two soon.

I was asked to present 3 awards and to give the student brief winner a check for $2,000. I was so excited to be at the ceremony and all of us had a great time. I particularly liked giving the check. It was one of those huge checks like from Publishers Clearinghouse. That was a first for me! I guess I can literally “check” it off my list now. icon wink Mango goes to the Bees Awards

What do YOU love most about social media?

Aug 28

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-28

August 28th, 2010 by Leave A Comment

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Jul 17

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-17

July 17th, 2010 by Leave A Comment

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Dec 04

The Power of Twitter – Creates Angels

December 4th, 2009 by 2 Comments

bigstockphoto Twitter 5971540 300x231 The Power of Twitter Creates AngelsHere at Mango Languages we truly believe in the idea of community. We are a company that built a product for the people and by the people.

Mango has joined the following social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr and LinkedIn .

These sites are all about creating community with groups of people. We love to join others who are just as passionate about language and linguistics. We also are meeting and interacting with people all over the world.

Personally, I have been using twitter for quite some time now but never thought in a million years that twitter would be an angel until last weekend when my work computer was stolen from my car. It was in the floor of my backseat, (shh, don’t tell anyone but I was trying to avoid the temptation to work as I am a bit of a workaholic.) Due to some unusual circumstances (I was not the last person out of the car) it did not get locked. I know, this is where you say…so stupid Beverly!

Let me set the scene. At around 2:00 am a stranger tweeted me to contact him when I received his note. I was sleeping. I woke to another tweet from him saying he thinks he has my laptop and that he bought it from a guy who he suspected stole it from me. I thought at first it was Spam and the guy was trying to “work” me.

I looked out my window, my car was fine and my computer case was in the back. What was the guy up to? I ignored him.

Then he sent me another tweet saying that he would meet me at a police station to give me my computer back. Now…I got to thinking. I went out to my car and the door was not fully closed just closed enough to look like it was closed. My heart was racing! I opened it and picked up my computer bag. Empty!!!

At this point I am in shock and my mind is racing. I called the local police station to see what I should do. An officer visited the scene of the crime (still can’t believe I am typing that) and I filed an official police report.

The officer asked for the Twitter info and suggested I try to get a hold of my twitter angel. I tweeted him. No answer for 5 hours…but then it came. He works nights so he was sleeping all day.

He confirmed the type of computer. We chatted, he works at a local gas station. His story…A dirty bum came in and asked him if he likes Macs. He said yes but didn’t expect the guy to pull one out from under his shirt. He knew it had been stolen and whose ever it was would be devastated. He bought it for $50 (this I can’t believe! – my baby for only $50), found my name on it and googled me. Saw I was on Twitter and made contact.

We met that night at the police station, I got my beautiful baby back – not even 24 hours after she was taken (officer said this never happens) and I have my faith restored in humanity. There are still lots of good people out there! The best thing – I knew who had my computer before I even knew it was stolen. Whew!

All because of Twitter!

Do you have any Twitter Angels or great twitter stories? Please share!

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