Mango has been busy with enhancements to their language learning product. In this post Mary Lee (Northland) and Sarah (CLP) share the details.
One of the most exciting upgrades is a fascinating new way to engage language learners. It is called Mango Premiere, and it is learning language through film. Right now, there are 20 movies in seven different languages.
There are two different ways to watch the movies: in movie mode or engage mode. In movie mode you watch the movie without interruptions, and you decide what, if any, subtitles you want. In engage mode, the movie is broken into scenes. Each scene is introduced with general background, words that will be introduced, and cultural notes. The scene is further broken down, with interactive content.
I have been watching Jerichow, a German movie starring German leading man and heartthrob Benno Fürmann. Jerichow has a 100% top critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It is an excellent movie for adults and I love hearing, and repeating to myself, how people really talk.
For those of you who love movies, who are interested in sharpening your language skills, and who want to know more than “Where is the train station?” I highly recommend Mango Premiere.
— Mary Lee
Whether you use Mango Premier or not, you can start managing your Mango activity, tracking your progress, and learning about newly available content with the new Mango Connect™ interface. It reportedly offers a more intuitive user experience, an updated dashboard and course organization, and a customizable profile page. For now users can choose whether they use the new Mango Connect™interface or stick with the old dashboard. On June 2nd, 2014, all accounts will be upgraded to Mango Connect™.
As part of the shift to Mango Connect™, the Basic and Complete 2.0 courses are merging into a single product: Mango Conversations. All the content will still be there, it’ll just be housed under the new name. As for the Complete 1.0 courses that are currently a part of our Mango offerings, those will no longer be available following the June 2nd upgrade date. For those patrons who need to make the shift from a 1.0 course to a Mango Conversations course there are newly available language placement tests for the 17 most popular languages. Not only will these help patrons making the transition from 1.0 to Conversations, they will also come in handy for patrons just starting out with Mango.
— Sarah