Chris Harris

Ni Hao, Mango!
September 19, 2007

Ni hao, "hello" in Mandarin Chinese, to you. After browsing through a newly released language learning site, Mango, I can  say "ni hao" and know what it means. I actually want to follow further through the Mandarin Chinese lessons, as I strongly believe that will be a very good language to know in coming years.

If you want to learn Mandarin Chinese as well (or Italian, Russian, French, German, Greek, Spanish, Japanese, or Portuguese) I am really liking the instructional style that Mango uses. Their Flash-based interface progresses through lessons that include a great deal of repetition and opportunities for practice. The program also focuses on some of the information behind the language; for example, "ni hao" actually translates to "you good" but it is used as the way to say "hello."

For a library looking to offer enrichment or extension activities, or for a librarian looking for a lifelong learning challenge, Mango looks like a winner! It is in beta, so there may be some bugs still to be worked out, but they are suggesting that it will stay with a free access model. Signup requires an e-mail address and a first name, but no password. It uses that address to remember where you are in your lessons.

Posted by Chris Harris on September 19, 2007 | Comments (0)