Mango Languages

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?

Meet New Mango Elf Nicolas Pommereau

Feature Friday:
We are so excited to have Nicolas on the Mango Product Development Team! I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with him this week, and I learned a ton about him.

Nicolas was born in Paris, France but grew up an army brat so he has lived all over France and even in Tahiti. He moved to the U.S. in 2002 as an exchange student. He attended Michigan State University and obtained two degrees, one in telecommunications and the other in French. He speaks several languages (I am so jealous), French, English, Spanish and a bit of Italian, German, and Russian. He enjoys any opportunity to learn a language. I think he found a great place to work that feeds his addiction.

He said that when he moved here from Paris…getting used to a more suburban lifestyle was interesting. He said everything was bigger here, especially the cars. He shared a story with m about his first night at the university. He said he kept hearing honking all night and thought someone had double parked and trapped a driver. But he quickly realized that our trains honk. Who knew?

His wife calls him “Nicopedia” because he is full of random trivia. Next Trivial Pursuit game at the Grove, I am calling dibs on Nicolas to be on my team. He loves rugby and even took fencing and orienteering at boarding school. Give him a compass and a map and he is your best bet out of the forest. He is also an avid barefoot runner.

Please help me give Nicolas a warm welcome to the Mango Grove.

Guest Post: Learning French

I am very excited to have Tanya Brothen providing Mango a Guest Blog Post.  She has spent the last 14 years learning how to correctly pronounce French words.  While living in Paris in 2008 she started Parisian Spring, a blog about the life and interests of a Francophile traveler.  Tanya currently spends her days working in Washington, D.C., and her nights wishing she owned a home in Provence.

Question: What do the words “accident,” “fruit,” and “table,” have in common?
Answer: All three are regularly used in conversation by English and French speakers alike.

Thanks to the Normans who conquered England in 1066, roughly one third of all English words are of French origin (some by way of Latin), with many of those words spelled exactly the same in both languages.   Think of “courage,” “original,” and “million.”  On any given day, Anglophones are regularly using French words without even thinking about it.

Question: Does this similarity of vocabulary translate into ease in learning the language?
Answer: Don’t bet on it.

See, while the words look the same, their pronunciations are often completely different.  When pronounced in French, the word “fruit” sounds more like “fwee” rather than its English cousin, “froot.”  Francophones wouldn’t dream of pronouncing the “t” in “accident,” and you’re going to need to perfect your from-the-throat hacking sounds to correctly say “original” in front of a Parisian.  You could argue that the similar-look/different-pronunciation conundrum is actually a hindrance to Anglophone learners of French, tricking them into consistently mispronouncing the words that look familiar.

Adding to the confusion are the famous “faux amis,” or false friends.  These are words that, while spelled the same in both French and English, not only have different pronunciations, but also completely different meanings.  Take the word “sensible,” for example.   To the English speaker, it means having or showing good judgment, but the French speaker uses “sensible” to describe a sensitive person or thing.

Question: So what’s an Anglophone learner of French to do?
Answer: It might sound daunting, but straight-up memorization is what helped me.  Flash cards are another good option; simply write the word on one side of a card and the meaning in both French and English on the other side.  For help with pronunciation, try watching a French movie with English subtitles, which allows you to see a word like “original” written in English but pronounced in French.

You’ll know your French skills have truly arrived when you start searching for the meaning or pronunciation of a faux ami in English rather than en Français.  By this point, the previously foreign language will probably start coming to you naturally.  And if it doesn’t, you can always blame the Normans.