A Way With Words

Move over, Rosetta Stone. There’s a new on-line language learning system in town, brought to you by the . 

The best part is it’s FREE and you don’t have to leave your home to take a lesson.  All you need is to input your 14-digit library code to get started - the icon to click on Mango Languages is found on the opening page of the library’s website.  To use all the features you must have internet access, speakers, and a microphone (the microphone is not mandatory, it’s used for the voice comparison feature). 

“Mango is great for students, business people who interact with the international community, a spouse who married into a foreign speaking family, and for international travel," said Reference Department Librarian, Marianne Malagon.  "And it gives independence to tourists who don’t want to rely on a tour guide.” 

There are 29 international languages for English speakers and visa-versa, there are 15 ESL courses.   

“We highly recommend that you create a profile, it’s easy to do," Malagon said. "It lets you track your progress and it recalls where you left off."

Some of the languages offered are Urdu, Tagalog, Pashto, Dari, and Tamil but the most popular are French, German, Italian, and Spanish.  The library will keep adding languages so check back to find out.

Courses are available at different levels and some offer a three-tiered learning option:

1. Basic:  consists of simple, practical skills for common, polite conversation situations in only a few short hours.
2. Complete 1.0:  teaches in-depth and comprehensive language and grammar skills.
3. Complete 2.0:  aimed at students who want to move beyond basic language skills, includes a voice comparison feature.

“The library is happy to announce that we just started offering a one-on-one, 45 minute tutorial to help our residents navigate the site," Malagon said. "You can arrange an appointment by either calling us at the reference desk or on our website under ‘Reference Services’ there is an electronic form to fill out."

Besides being fun to check out, the lessons are spoken by native speakers and occasionally cultural tips are given.  This user-friendly site often displays beautiful imagery of the country. In some cases you will need to have Java Script and Adobe Flash Player in order to launch Mango Languages. 

This system is truly a savings. To put it into perspective, the purchase price of Rosetta Stone has a starting price of over $200 and they don’t offer as many languages.  So…maken de meeste van de bibliotheek is een uitstekende bron!

Note:  After 35 minutes of inactivity the program will automatically sign you out.  If the icon for Mango is not visible on the home page, you can access it by going under Reference Services, find the online database and click on World Languages.

To view Mango go to:  http://www.syossetlibrary.org/