Mango Languages

Celtic Colours International Festival

Since 1997, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia has been the home of the Celtic Colours (Yes, with a “u”) International Festival. For nine days in October, Cape Breton is Celtic-clad with music, dancers, story-tellers, and the like from all over the world: Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Spain, Denmark, Cuba, Germany, the U.S., and more.

This festival isn’t just located in just one place or locale.  It is held all across the island. There are concerts and festivals celebrating authentic Celtic culture from town to town, within chapels, community “centres,” and even local fire halls.

The Celtic Colours International Festival has been given a substantial amount of credit world wide, receiving three East Coast Music Awards in recent years.

So if you’re interested in friendly people, beautiful scenery, and spelling words like “centre” and “colour” incorrectly (kidding),  make this your destination next October!

Have you  listened to Celtic music? Do you know anyone who celebrates Celtic culture? Please share!

Spain Wins World Cup

I was sitting on the edge of my seat for most of the 2nd half of the game yesterday.   I was watching the game with some international friends whose allegiances were divided…some for the Netherlands and some for Spain. I was completely for Spain. I wore red; I had my nails painted Red and Gold with the words Spain on them; and even took a Spanish fan (you know the kind you hold in your hand) with me to the bar to watch the game all in hopes of win.

You see, this game was personal for me.  Having lived in Spain for a summer back in 1992 and visiting several times over the past few years, Spain has a piece of my heart.   My host family was amazing and I made several great friendships while living there.   It was because of my wonderful experiences there that I work in the world of language now.

I know that my family and friends in Spain are celebrating this first time World Cup win.  And they need it.   Their economy has been rocked just as badly, if not worse, than ours.  Sometimes those small wins are what get us through the tough times.

So to all my Spanish family and friends…Viva Espana!

Learn Spanish

Spanish is the native language of 339 million people in the world. In addition to Spain, Spanish is the official language of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In addition, it is widely spoken in several other nations, including Canada, Morocco, the Philippines, and the United States.

Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. While all Spanish dialects use the same written standard, there are important variations spoken among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America. One major phonological difference between Castilian, broadly speaking, the dialects spoken in northern Spain, and the dialects of southern Spain and all the Latin American dialects of Spanish, is the absence of a voiceless dental fricative (/θ/ as in English thing) in the latter.

Spanish is one of the Romance languages in the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European language family, and within Spain, and has two major dialects: Andalusian and Castilian. Many other dialects exist in other geographical areas, namely North and South America. Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese are essentially dialects of the same language. If you learn one, you can learn the others. If you learn Spanish, you open the door to the culture, music, history and possible business dealings with 800 million people in 60 countries, including the US and Canada.