We want to admit that one of the most important things at Mingoville is knowing that somebody is actually  using and benefiting from what you develop. We are so thrilled and excited to share on our blog what our users from France are saying about Mingoville.
 

“Marie-Catherine Capel, School tutor at the multimedia center of Boulingrins, 95490 Vauréal, France

As part of an initiative from the Collège of Vauréal (French middle school or junior high school) to support teenagers (11-16 years old) having difficulties with their homeworks, I created a multimedia workshop in foreign languages (English and German) from scratch in 2007.

In 2008, I discovered Mingoville. …

I immediately fell in love with Mingoville. Some of my favourite features include:

• the high quality & the realism of the animations,
• the fantastic voices and great English pronunciation,
• the colourful images,
• the eccentricity of the characters,
• the variety and progress of the missions,
• its perfect match with both for the linguistic program of the 6ème and 5ème,
• and an ESL refresher course for teenagers who dropped out at some point in their education (college or further).

We have been interacting with an adorable and very helpful person, Malene Jensen, whom I would like to acknowledge and thank in her commitment and support with our Mingoville implementation.

I truly believe that this program is quite remarkable with its high quality and well thought details and a very precious tool for teachers and students.

Mingoville : Work or play? It’s both with lots of fun!!!!! Definitively the winning formula!

One of our students in 6ème, Theresia says: “When I go home, I work and play on Mingoville, and since then, my little sister has also fallen under the spell of Mingoville and knows everything by heart! Magical!

Bravo and thank you! Long live to Mingoville and its flamboyant flamingos!!”

Well, just wanted to share it with you and as always have fun learning English.

Vladimir Chen

A Portuguese publishing house, Texto Editores, has designed and produced 4 English books for children based on the Mingoville’s interactive English program (www.Mingoville.com). Texto Editores is to sell the books to the Portuguese public and the schools, some of which are already using the Mingoville program in their English classes.

Publishing houses like Texto Editores have started to look after interactive online content providers to supplement their expertise in producing print materials with the interactive content. Now they’ve teamed up with Mingoville.

That is the great news for everyone. Most importantly, it provides a complete integration of off- and on-line teaching material and makes it more fun for the kids to learn English. Both can be used independently from one another making the integration even more dynamic and engaging. Hopefully, other publishers will recognize the trend and we will see English books based on the Mingoville content in other corners of the world as well.

For instance there is a small recycling exercise where kids have to throw the rubbish into the right recycling bin. This is definitely a very good idea especially now when everybody is focusing on the green economies and the climate.

To start with, some 40,000 copies of the four books will be available in Portugal. We really hope the Portugese kids will enjoy the interlink between the Mingoville books and the online program even more now.

Feel free to write us your comments as we are always open to suggestions.

Our virtual world is finally LIVE in Denmark as the first market. After days and even nights of testing, testing and testing, we have launched our Mingoville World to the Danish kids. Now they can learn English while they play fun games, meet new friends and talk to their classmates.

It was a great moment when we launched, with lots of cheering as we welcomed our first kid in the Mingoville World, but also a moment with some anxiety. Would the kids find our educational games entertaining and would they use our Safe English Chat? Similarly, would they understand how to use the coins and feathers they earn by completing the learning exercises in the Mingoville School? Well, we had nothing to fear. The kids have lots of fun playing the games while also chatting in English.

Picture this; 8 year old Peter is sitting very concentrated in front of the computer singing the same song over and over again, practicing his English pronunciation which has to be perfect. He is recording the song for the concert he is giving in the Mingoville World tonight. A concert, he has invited all his online friends to go to. On the other side of the world, 9 year old Alexandra is logging in to the Mingoville World. She is looking forward to going to the concert with her Danish friend Peter.

Actually, the more you practice your English and the more English exercises you complete in the Mingoville School, the more feathers and coins you get in the Mingoville World to play with. To give a concert requires that you record an English song which in return gives lots of feathers and coins to dress up your flamingo or buy a drink in the Café.

Register your kid in the Mingoville World (Only Danes for the time being)

We have tested the Safe English Chat feature. NO offensive words can be used, trust us.

Mingoville World is in beta as we continue to develop it by adding new exciting games and features thus assuring that the kids never get bored when learning English. We welcome you to explore the new virtual world together with your kids when it comes out in June.

Please feel free to comment or share your ideas and experiences with Mingoville. We are always open to your suggestions.

Sign up now for free and be notified when the Mingoville World is available in your country

June Rosendahl
Mingoville Team

Hello all,

As you may already know from our previous posts, Mingoville is going to launch a virtual world
where kids will have an opportunity to learn English in a much more engaging way. Building avatars, earning coins / feathers, safe chat in English, meeting new friends, collaborating, playing and practicing in a much more dynamic and personalized ways is what the new Mingoville virtual world is all about.

How do we learn languages? We do it by immersing ourselves in the right environment. Mingoville is all about fun learning. We understand that traditional learning at schools, homework and other similar activities can sometimes be boring. Therefore, our goal is to create a fun environment on the Internet, where kids can learn new things without actually realizing that they learn.

Here are some images in action:

Kids will be able to select and dress own avatar using their coins and feathers they have earned by completing learning exercises.

Kids Learn English with actionable fun games

Kids will be able to communicate inside the virtual world using the Mingoville safe chat.

And so much more.

Mingoville MMO is going to be BETA launched first in Scandinavia (DK) in May, 2009.

Kids, parents and teachers from other countries will get an access in June, 2009.

Honestly, we can’t wait to open the new Mingoville to you and also get your feedback about the program very soon.

Stay tuned and we will inform you of the launch.

Stephan Stephensen, CEO

Greetings from Mingoville,

It is time to write an update on the progress of the Mingoville MMOEG (Massively Multiplayer Online Educational Game) that we recently announced about on our blog. We are going the full speed with building an exhilarating educational experience for kids who want to learn English as a second language (ESL) and have fun by playing exciting games.

Recently, we’ve been doing a lot of testing, the results of which we will share next time. Until then we wanted to show you some of the MMOG maps (drawings) to be found in the Mingoville Virtual World.

Cafe Map - this is where you are going to meet your buddies, start the conversation game, the racing game,  the fish game and much more.

Airport Map - Here you can take tours, get ice-cream and water tour as well as stand at a table in groups and chat (launched by hitting the tables).

Station Map - There is a good public transportation system in Mingoville.

Read the rest of this entry »