Alameda County Library
Belvedere-Tiburon Library
College of San Mateo
County of Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles Public Library (2 reviewers)
Palos Verdes Library District
Rancho Cucamonga Public Library
San Jose Public Library
San Rafael Public Library
Santa Clara County Library (2 reviewers)
Yolo County Library
Comments below are in no particular order and are listed in order to provide an idea of the spectrum of opinions from participating librarians.
Product Description:
Mango Languages is a language learning tool which teaches how to speak foreign languages as well as English as a second language. It uses a combination of audio and the written text to teach conversation.
Lessons differ for each language, though all cover standard tourist and language learner topics. Native speakers (male and female) give pronunciation. Learner repeats after speaker. Review modules for vocabulary, phrases.
Critical Review:
Each reviewer should rate the following areas with a score ranging from 1 (no recommendation) to 4 (strong recommendation). Then all scores for all areas shall be added and averaged, giving a composite score. Also include a brief narrative on strengths and weaknesses of each area.
Search interface:
Consider the functionality and ease of use of the interface. Is it intuitive or is an excessive amount of training required? Are any crucial features missing from the search interface?
The interface was largely seen as intuitive and easy to use.
The interface is extremely easy to use. The user has the choice of using the mouse or the keyboard. All that is required is for the user to know how to point and click. It also has a very easy keyboard icon that explains how to use the spacebar, enter, and arrow keys instead of using the mouse. There is no training required as the software claims.
The Interface is very easy to figure out. However, it is rather dull. The colors in the sentences are good, but sometimes explanatory paragraphs are rather long. They could be shortened and perhaps the point under discussion (the difference between “tu” and “vous” in French for example) could continue the color theme. Have you ever considered music and more interactive activities?
There is no search interface, only links and pull-down menus. Simply choose your language, it begins with lesson one, but you can select other lessons from the drop down menu. The main interface is the lesson screen and the forward button. Very simple to get started. On using further, I liked the mouseover that gave a written pronunciation cue, and also the ability to repeat the sound of the word/phrase, and to “turn off” the English narrator, enabling the learner to focus on the second language. My work computer did not have Adobe Flash 9 so this had to be updated to use the site. Library patrons may also find this necessary with remote access. I also like the fact that the focus is on the sound and sight of the language, there are no corny graphics to go along with the conversations. The screen is very clean and uncluttered.
There isn’t a lot of searching that has to be done in this database. Navigation is simple and streamlined. I like the fact that you can use the keyboard arrows to go back and forth between screens. One thing that’s missing is some sort of table of contents for each language. All we see is “Lesson 1,” “Lesson 2,” etc. We have no idea what the content of these lessons is. Not everybody will want to start at the beginning. I want to see an outline of the entire language: exactly what is taught and when.
Lessons are easy to use, but the rest of the site is difficult to navigate. Unable to play introductory video.
There are very few written instructions on using the interface. Most of the prompts are audio or visual symbols, which is fine in most cases. The visual symbols are intuitive and it is easy to go back and forth through the lesson, to add more time to each piece of the lesson, and to play the audio. However, there are some points where explanation would be useful. For example, the use of color to match the words and phrases with their English counterparts would be more helpful if there were a description of this tool. In the first Japanese language lesson, one of the phrases they teach is “Are you fine (ogenki desuka)?” However, the first term, ogenki, means fine, and the second term means are you, so that if you don’t know about the color prompt (and it is less obvious because you only have little boxes and not characters) when they ask you the next question, how do you say fine, you assume the answer is desuka. Also, I could not get the bookmark slide tool to work, nor did I understand what I would use it for. In some parts of the lessons, the media was slow to load and was not keeping up with me.
Quality of information and sources provided:
Consider its functionality, the appropriateness of format, the content of the information, and the adequacy of coverage.
The information was seen as meeting what was promised: basic travel phrases and introductory language skills.
The system is designed to learn travel phrases through repetition and at your own pace. It covers 100 lessons and students will learn 2,200 words in the new languages. Quizzes and tests are placed throughout the lesson. It also includes a link to a Google powered text Translator. The system covers very little grammar review. However, it does give you the phonetic pronunciations of the word and phrases through sound bits and written phonetic pronunciations are provided through a tool tips window. The system color-codes the parts of speech in both English and the new language so that the user can compare the use in both languages. There are nine languages that are available for study: Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Greek, Mandarin Chinese and Russian. It also includes three ESL courses in Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and Polish.
The information was good quality and practical. It did not promise to teach more than was actually taught. The idiomatic use of language was good and the pronunciation was good too. Sometimes a little grammar does not hurt, and it might help to have a playback where the learner could practice pronunciation and compare his or hers to the original. The downloadable lessons are very helpful, but the translator is strange (“I had better leave” DOES NOT translate as “J'ai eu un meilleur conge”).
There was a lot of vocabulary, and currency exchange phrases reflected present day currencies, for example. I think if you worked your way through a course, you’d be very comfortable when traveling in a country where that language was spoken.
The language lessons are conversational, related to travel and everyday topics. The content is practical, useful information. The quality appears to be good. I can verify the Spanish and French lessons are accurate. I also briefly tried languages that I’m not familiar with: Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, And Greek. Very impressive, the lessons are complete in including the written language. The parts of grammar in each sentence are color-coded, which helps visually to see how the sentence is constructed. The only user suggestion I saw was already mentioned on the Mango blog, to be able to magnify the words that are in a different alphabet (Japanese & Chinese characters…) Apparently they are working on this.
Would like to see additional languages (understand they have plans to add new ones). Not clear to me how advanced the lessons get, but it appears to cover at least a minimum of intermediate conversational skills.
Some learning required. I had to go into ‘compare subscriptions’ to find the lesson topics (apart from going lesson by lesson). No index to vocabulary or topics. No feedback (recorded voice or sound pattern).
I don’t see much difference between the “main lessons” and the “condensed lessons.” The condensed lessons aren’t much shorter. In my opinion, there are too many screens to get through per lesson, and too much repetition. I also don’t see much difference between “Vocabulary Review” and “Phrasebook Review.” The “Translator” is just Google’s translator. (In other words, you can get the same thing online for free)
I thought that the languages offered were useful, but I also thought it was a small list of languages and would like to see more added in the future. Also, within a language course, the links to Condensed Lessons, Vocabulary Review, Phrasebook Review and Main Lessons all just took me back to the first slide of that particular lesson, which was very unhelpful. The character-based languages had no instructions for downloading a language package to see the characters in the lesson, so as I was going through the lesson I saw the English words and then empty squares representing the characters. Additionally, while when you moused over the words in the lesson, you were given a pronunciation key, the voices did not pronounce the words slowly, syllable by syllable, which made it difficult, particularly in the Asian languages, to get the pronunciation correct.
Help and User Support:
If documentation is required for successful use of product, is it available, comprehensive, and well written? Is online help adequate and user friendly? Does vendor supply training if it is needed? Is a telephone helpline available?
Help was seen as lacking a bit, but the ease of use made it largely unnecessary.
The system supposedly provides documentation, live chat, email, and an 800 number for help and User Support. However, written documentation was not available under the hypertext link, live chat did not respond, and I was bumped me into email help after being placed on hold for 5 minutes. When I called the 800 number, the automated system pick-up and after making my selection I was told I made an invalid selection. On my second attempt the automated system placed me on hold, after waiting for several minutes I gave up.
There is information on downloading Adobe Flash Player Version 9, and a way to submit a ticket with viewing or other problems. It appears that there is email/chat help available. I didn’t really see a written FAQ related to problems or troubleshooting. But then, it’s a very easy site to use. It looks like help is available if needed. I like the fact that they have a blog, in some ways this takes the place of a long FAQ with every potential problem. It also looks as though they respond to comments posted on the blog, which makes the service appear to be responsive to user needs.
Live chat was offline when I tried to access it. The knowledgebase had no information in it. Email support is available. I was unable to link to the help feature—when I clicked on it using both IE and Firefox it just brought me back to the main Mango Languages page. This also happened when I tried to click on the Contact Us link. I have no idea if there are help pages and topics and if they are comprehensive and well written.
Accessibility of service:
Is access/connection to product reliable and stable? Is response time adequate?
The connectivity was fine and there were no issues.
I was dropped once or twice from a lesson and sent back to the home page, if I clicked on the “Next Page” icon before the spoken text had finished for a particular page.
It’s been great every time I tried to log on.
Once I got flash downloaded I did not have any problems with connectivity. The product seemed to work equally well in IE and Firefox.
Cost:
if cost is available, does it seem reasonable in terms of comparable products?
The cost was seen as favorable, especially to other competing products.
Better than Auralog, as far as I know, only competitor.
Although it doesn’t have the bells and whistles that a more serious student of language would hope for, this is a good package for a library to carry until a better offer comes along. This assessment is given without knowing the actual price. If the price is high, then this recommendation could easily drop to a 2, overall.
The cost seems reasonable to me, but I have no basis for comparison.
Overall assessment:
Scores: 3, 2, 2, 2, 4, 3.5, 3
Average: 2.79
The overall assessment was that the product was a good basic product, with some features lacking. Hopefully the product will continue to take into regard user feedback and continue to improve and add features.
This program has good features. It is plain and simple to use. It could perhaps use more bells and whistles to attract people who have grown up in the Internet age. It seems expensive for what you get. Get it. It’s a solid product. Easy to use with good content. It’s the best product available to libraries at this time.
It may change if I were able to access the help features and if many of the navigational tools and features provided, (e.g. vocabulary review), worked. I think the product needs some fine tuning before I would recommend it.
Approach is good. Limited languages. Most California libraries would need more ESL and Asian languages especially Vietnamese. No feedback (recorded voice or sound pattern). Not recommended.
This product fails to take advantage of the possibilities of online language instruction. I kept feeling like I was missing something, like there must be features I wasn’t seeing. Where is the streaming media? Where are the videos? Where is the cultural information? There aren’t even any pictures! I found it hard to keep up an interest past the first lesson or two of a given language. Switching between languages, you see that they’re all set up pretty much the same way. Boring! Languages that don’t use the roman alphabet are especially problematic. There’s no help (at least at the beginning) in deciphering, for example, the Japanese script that appears on the screen. All we get is an English translation. The whole thing just strikes me as flat and uninspiring. Besides the fact that it’s online and always available, I don’t see much value added to this product over CDs or DVDs.
Overall, I like this product better than the Auralog one. It is more user friendly, the screen is not quite cluttered. I especially like the availability of the phonetic pronunciation and the translator option. I would recommend buying this product if the pricing appears to be reasonable.
My library population would use ESL Spanish so that is what I tested. For this function, compared to other products out there (Tell me More, Rosetta Stone, Side by Side) it is not geared to ESL learning. I think ESL needs a visual component—pictures, for example, that Mango doesn’t have. The narrators are clear and easy to understand and basic topics are covered—business, eating, greetings, but it isn’t my first choice for ESL. I wonder how quickly a user would get through each lesson—it seems easy to plow through without really grasping the language.
I think that anyone who has gone through all the lessons for a particular language would be at ease when traveling in a country where that language is spoken. The biggest drawback is often beginning with sentences that do not seem to apply to the main topic or title of the chapter. For example, when a chapter is entitled “Setting the Table”, does “This blouse is too tight around the shoulders and back,” seem relevant?
Mango Languages System is designed for learning basic travel phrases. The system is not designed for students who are interested in learning in a new language thoroughly and developing a strong grammar foundation. It is recommended for general public libraries whose library users are only interested in learning a new language for travel.
MANGO LANGUAGES RESPONDS
Thank you for your sincere evaluation of Mango Languages' Library Edition. We appreciate your recognition of the fact that we have the best language learning program available to libraries, as we have worked diligently to provide a language learning tool that is both user friendly and highly effective. Mango Languages' Library Edition is designed to provide language learners with remarkable conversational results after every lesson, and your evaluation has provided us with important feedback that will guide us in our unwavering pursuit to perfect the quality our programs.
In response to: “Have you ever considered music and more interactive activities?”
Plans to integrate video and music into our programs are already underway. We believe that this is a vital component of maximizing linguistic and cultural exposure that will complement our approach to language learning.
In response to: “There are nine languages that are available for study: Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Greek, Mandarin Chinese and Russian. It also includes three ESL courses in Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and Polish.”
We currently offer twelve language learning courses. We plan to release ESL courses for each of these languages (except Greek) sometime during the third quarter of this year. Additionally, we are creating a basic ESL course structure that will multiply our efficiency in delivering new ESL language courses to the library system. Our goal is to help libraries support the wide variety of language diversity within individual library populations.
Pertaining to the grammar questions:
The teaching of grammar is embedded into the structure and methodology of our approach. In each language program, we teach over 2,200 high frequency words in the course of 100 lessons. More importantly, we teach students the grammatical patterns necessary to arranging those words into grammatically correct sentences.
In response to the customer support question: We view customer support as an indispensable part of Mango. It should be noted that Mango currently has outstanding email support. We are responding to an increased need for customer support to meet the rising demand for our product, and the following solutions will be implemented during the third quarter of this year:
• Hiring additional customer support staff to effectively handle the growing numbers of phone and email inquiries.
• Dedicating a specialized support channel solely to libraries.
• Adding a tutorial mode built directly into our program that will provide answers to most, if not all, questions from patrons about using Mango.
• Making an FAQ section available on our website.
Thank you again for making time to give us an honest evaluation of our language learning system. Our goal is to provide only the best language learning solutions, and your feedback is a valuable element of our mission.
Sincerely,
Ryan Colpaert
Director of Sales
