Filed under: Internet, Web services, Beta
Learn to speak a foreign language with Mango
Mango is a new online website that makes learning foreign languages a whole lot easier. When you begin a lesson, you will hear a brief conversation, and then you can flip forward and backward through a series of slides at your own pace. Mango does an excellent job of combining audio clips and written text. Want to hear a phrase again? Just click the sound icon. Want to skip ahead, just click the slide advance button.
There are a variety of languages to choose from, including Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarine, Brazillian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. The lessons are almost all geared toward English speakers, but the infrastructure would easily lend itself to adding lessons for native speakers of any language.
You can choose from about 100 lessons for each language, so while Mango might not qualify as an advanced language course, it's a pretty good way to start learning a new language or to brush up on the Spanish you never really learned during high school.
Mango is free while in beta, although you'll need to register for an account. We're not sure whether the ultimate plan is for Mango to become a subscription-based or advertising-supported service, but we're assuming the developers wouldn't have put together this fine resource without a plan to make some money off it one day.
[via Lifehacker]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
wung said 6:59AM on 9-21-2007
that's a really nice app/website!
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Warren Williams said 10:17AM on 9-21-2007
A new language is important these days
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Bav said 6:39PM on 9-21-2007
Wow...very nice! It's pretty and the repeat or replay button to hear the words ALONG with phonetic spelling makes this quite a nice learning tool.
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panta said 9:29PM on 9-29-2007
english
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panta said 9:29PM on 9-29-2007
speake english
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Nicolette said 12:50AM on 11-07-2007
I know Mango and I always recommend this tool to languages learners who look for good FREE online resources to learn a foreign language.
I have a lot of good feedback about Mango languages ... and I think that it may be a good alternative for people who can't afford to purchase expensive software to learn a new language.
I speak 7 languages and I know what it takes to learn, then to master a foreign language ... and Mango seems to be a great tool.
I like also livemocha.com, it's FREE also: http://www.livemocha.com/
Internet is so powerful, there are a lot of tools out there, you can even learn a foreign language with your Ipod by downloading free podcasts online.
I talk about all that in my blog: The best and effective way to self-study ANY foreign language!
http://www.languageslovers.blogspot.com/
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