Language learning program trials: Try both out and let us know!

Looking to learn a new language, or brush up on one you are already familiar with? Snell Library has trials to two language learning programs: Mango Languages and Pronunciator. (Log-in information below.) Mango’s trial ends on April 16 and Pronunciator’s ends on April 10. Try them out while you can! Both programs offer similar features such as:

• Key phrases and expressions in the target language

• Narration by native speakers to show you how to pronounce each word

• Cultural bits of information which help you get a sense of proper etiquette in the country where the language you are learning is spoken

• Media in the form of radio broadcasts and films with subtitles to help you with your listening comprehension

• Media can be played back at varying speeds to suit your level of comprehension

• Exercises and quizzes to see what you have learned

• Mango offers 63 languages, Prounciator offers 80

Now for the differences:

• Pronunciator allows you to select any language as your source language and any language as your target language. If you choose German as your source language and Thai as your target language, you would be learning Thai with instruction in German.

• Mango does not have mix and match capabilities, but it does offer English courses for non-English speakers of Polish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Greek, Russian, Armenian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

• Pronunciator will match the pitches of different vowels of words to music notes so you can hear the differing tones of different vowel sounds.

• Pronunciator gives you the option of playing only the voice, the notes, or both the voice and notes.

  Screenshot from Pronunciator’s Vietnamese course.  

• With Pronunciator’s writing tool, the narrator speaks a word or phrase in the target language, and you can write the word and insert vowels with diacritics using the virtual keyboard.

• Pronunciator takes accurate diacritic marks into account. Red letters indicate that the diacritics are either incorrect or missing.

  Screenshot of Pronunciator’s writing tool.  

• Mango color codes parts of speech in both languages to show the user which parts of speech in the language being learned correspond with those in the user’s native language.

  Screenshot from Mango matching English words to Vietnamese words.   Pronunciator and Mango have apps available for mobile devices including iOS and Android devices: Pronunciator apps | Mango apps   The URL for the free trials are: Pronunciator: learning.pronunciator.com/ne.php Log in: ne Password ne Mango:connect.mangolanguages.com/northeastern-university-trial/try/f814b6af0   Try out both and let us know what you think!