Hello Mingovillers,

A couple of weeks ago, we found a blog on the Internet that caught our attention. We got inspired by this story and decided to write a post on our blog.

Here it goes.

The blogger’s name is Debbie. Debbie lives in Japan where she works as English teacher. She is married and has two lovely sons: Issei and Koji.

Debbie has a blog where she shares with her students and friends some interesting and personal things about her life and family.

We found her blog very interesting to pass it around internally. Not only she writes in a interesting style but also because her family has this tradition called “Flamingo Friday”.

As Debbie says, they started the tradition a couple of months ago and every week they pick up pictures of flamingos from their house and Google Images. They simply love flamingos!

Debbie’s sons both speak English well. However, Debbie thinks that her boys, especially the older one, should take advantage of some online programs (like Mingoville) to improve reading, spelling and writing skills. Not to mention that Mingoville is all about flamingos that speak only English.

This is what Debbie wrote on her blog about Mingoville:

“a very good friend of mine (Hi Tomoko!!), who knows that I am all over anything flamingo…told me about a site on the Internet for kids who are learning English. It is called [Mingoville]. Mingoville is a city where flamingos live and speak only English. (I’m liking this already!) There is an interactive dictionary with 32 different languages…and they also have spelling, speaking, listening and reading activities. And the best part…..IT’S FREE!!! She told me about it, not only because of the particular theme this site has, but because it is a pretty good site for Issei to work on his own reading, spelling and writing skills. Though the young man can communicate verbally in English…..he is just like most other kids his age here in Japan when it comes to the other aspects of communication.”

By the way, Halloween is coming soon. Inspired by Debbie’s blog we’ve found some pretty flamingo costumes for almost the whole family. Pick and choose …

In the end, we just want to add that we are happy that by using Mingoville our users can combine ‘traditions’ with fun learning. If you want to read more about Debbie’s Flamingo Fridays go here

Vladimir Chen

Hello Mingovillers,

We just wanted to share with you that we’ve been working very hard on our new and fresh look website that will be launched at the end of September.

On our blog here we want to share a quick insight into how the new website is going to look. See below one of the sub-pages.

In addition to the fresh look and feel, there is going to be tons of new features on the new website, one of which is the “Downloads” section (as shown above).

In “Downloads”, kids, parents and teachers will be able to take advantage of all Mingoville’s resources including images, videos, songs, wallpapers, games and many more including print materials for fun extracurricular activities at schools.

On the frontpage, we are going to have a couple of very cool features. We are certain that they will help us build even stronger bonds in the community.

One of the fancy features is that Mingovillers will now be able to see where new users are coming from. Just imagine, how cool it is when you know where your mates from different corners of the world are stemming from. It is a big sense of pride of being a part of the big community while playing and learning English by taking small steps.

Vladimir Chen (on behalf of the Mingoville team)

Hello Mingovillers,

It is again our pleasure to share with you that EnglishClub.com has selected Mingoville as their ‘Site of the Month’ . EnglishClub is an ESL web site that has been dedicated to providing both students and teachers quality English learning/teaching content.

Every month EnglishClub recommends one site to its users. This month Mingoville has received this award. We are proud and highly appreciate the recognition. To read more about the award go here.

Vladimir Chen (On behalf of Mingoville team)

Hello Mingovillers,

We are so happy to announce our partnership with U.S. English Foundation Inc., one of the largest US educational foundations that promotes the role of English language, helps disseminate information on English teaching methods, sponsors educational programs and so on.

Mingoville is made available to all kids residing in the US via the Foundation.

Mr. Mauro E. Mujica, who has been the Chairman/CEO since 1993, addresses a serious problem with people not being able to speak English in the US. Quoting Mr. Mujica “Mingoville provides English instruction at any time, virtually anywhere, removing some of the most commonly cited barriers to English learning. With Mingoville, the opportunity to learn English is just a click away, and through our special partnership, free. English learners will be able to practice their English skills and take advantage of hundreds of lessons and activities at their pace and on their time, putting English acquisition within reach.”

We hope that we at Mingoville make our contribution to solving problems at this level.

Stephan Stephensen

CEO

Hello all,

We are very proud to announce our partnership with a global non-profit organization e-Learning for Kids in providing free English courses for children.

We want to contribute to reach the second goal from United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which is to achieve universal primary education by developing and providing high quality online English learning for kids. In order to reach those kids who cannot afford education, we need to work with foundations like e-Learning for Kids.

To read the rest of the news go here

Stephan Stephensen

Hello all,

When you are using Mingoville, make sure to use your personalized, interactive dictionary. You can get to the dictionary from the main portal or when you are inside a mission activity.

When you click on a certain image (e.g. car) the dictionary icon will appear in the speech baloon. This is just another way to access the English dictionary.

We want to make sure that you take the best use of Mingoville and particularly the interactive dictionary.We have also uploaded a video that thoroughly describes how you can use the dictionary to your advantage.

Vladimir (On behalf of Mingoville team)

We are so happy to announce that Adobe (www.adobe.com) has selected Mingoville to be an official site of the Day.

Hundreds of applications using Adobe (also formerly known as Macromedia) technologies participate in the contest to showcase their products out to the world.

On June 6, 2008 we were informed that Mingoville would be featured in the showcase section of the Adobe website Monday, June 9, 2008.

Adobe recognizes websites/applications based on their use of strong visual designs, superior functionalities, and innovative uses of Adobe product. Adobe appreciated and gave credit to the creative and engineering talent behind the scenes of the creation of Mingoville.com - Fun English for kids.

Stephan Stephensen

FPT, the sponsor of Mingoville from Vietnam has during the last three months carried out a Mingoville competition for their employees’ kids. The competition was arranged by FPT School, a subdivision of FPT. The purpose was to encourage online English learning for kids in a fun way as well as creating an exciting event for those employees who have young kids

The sign-up period was opened from 15th February and was closed one month later. More than 250 kids signed up from www.mingoville.com and began to learn English daily through Mingoville. The youngest kid was only 6 years old from 1st grade and the oldest kid was from 8th grade. The competition ended by 20th May and 12 kids were chosen to get different prizes. The evaluation of their performance was based on different criteria such as highest scores, amount of finished activities, best song records etc.

On Saturday May 31st FPT school arranged a festival for those kids and handed out the prizes. The prizes were:

The feedback from the parents on online English learning through Mingoville was very positive, especially concerning the convenience of the program as well as the comprehensive learning materials. Kids were not only acquired language skills but also social skills through their interaction with the program. English learning becomes fun through games-like activities and Mingoville quickly becomes a friend to their kid! Consequently, parents are confident with the course as well as appreciating the fact that Mingoville is 100% free of charge. They won’t have to worry about the high fee when it comes to English learning for their young kids any longer- thanks to FPT, Mingoville’s sponsor in Vietnam!

Hello all,

So, why is Mingoville so exciting? Well, you need to see this short video

One of the most important ways to learning and mastering the English Language is to read, read, and read.

It is said that a good reader is also a good writer and a good speaker. One’s proficiency in English hinges a lot on his interest and patience in reading.

And so, it’s always best to instill in children the love for reading. However, in today’s world, reading is something that most children dislike doing.

There are simply too many distractions that books, magazines, and newspapers are often ignored in favor of video games and movies. And while video games and movies also play a role in helping the child learn the English language, they still can’t quite compare to reading. And as a result, kids are learning less and less.

Colors and Pictures

There is, however, a solution.

Did you ever stop to think about why items like English for kids books are filled with color that it’s almost obscene such as in an English dictionary for kids?

Take a look at an elementary level text book and a college level text book. You’ll notice that the book for the elementary students are filled with pictures and colors and large fonts while the book for college students is drab, boring, and almost devoid of pictures. Those pictures and those colors in the elementary level text books aren’t there just for the sake of design. There’s more to them than that, and the reason lies in the wirings of our brains. Colors and Pictures make us more engaged in the act of learning grammar for kids. They catch our attention and help us retain more of what we read. This is especially true for little children who enjoy fun English for kids’ ways of learning the language.

Children are quite easily distracted. When you ask them to sit down and read quietly, their minds will often wander and it won’t take long before you find them doodling and not doing what you told them to do. But if a book is colorful enough to catch a kid’s attention, then you’ll have a better chance at getting the kid to sit down long enough to learn English for kids.

Interactivity and Games for Learning English

The same principle holds true for interactivity. Like colors and pictures, interactive reading materials like English songs for kids also get the child engaged in what he or she is learning. Interactive reading materials get the child to focus since using them is almost like playing.

Color and interactivity are very important in helping the child learn the English language, or any subject for that matter, because they keep the child interested long enough for learning to occur. With these materials, how to learn English for kids will never be boring again.