People aspire to learn a new language for many reasons; work, travel, studying abroad. Whatever your reason, there's a Farmington Hills company ready to teach.

Mango Languages, which has been serving the library market, K-12 school systems, universities and government, has launched new software called "Mango Passport" with the average traveler in mind. After receiving numerous requests for a retail version of their program, the company decided to expand its customer base, offering language learning software you can use at your own pace.

Beverly Cornell, Mango's Director of Marketing and Social Media says the company, which has been around for three years, has seen a steady growth of 100% each year, and is expecting more in the coming year. Over the past four months, Mango has hired 10 full-time employees in Farmington Hills and 90 language teachers and developers around the world in the last year.

"There are some serious plans." said Cornell. "We're hoping in 2011 to do a lot more than double. It's been pretty exciting, especially being a tech company here in the Detroit region."

Although the retail software is relatively new, users are already hooked. Margo Davydova, who is using Mango Passport to learn Italian for an upcoming trip, says the program is very user-friendly.

"It's not like the book 'Learning Italian for Dummies'," she said, "it's more of an actual conversation with real live people. My parents live in Russia. They thought they were too old to learn English. While my mother was visiting, I was showing her the software online. That's the first time I actually saw her enthusiastic about learning English. She was not intimidated, like going to a class. She could say it out loud without being afraid of how she was pronouncing it."

Mango lessons are designed to help you learn through everyday conversations. The software also adds culture and grammar while you learn.

"We really focus on the conversational aspect of language," says Cornell. "So after the first lesson, you're already talking and not worrying about memorizing things that aren't going to be helpful, like 'the ball is red'."

Davydova said she has used language instruction CDs, and they don't compare to Mango.

"It's probably one of the most effective tools out there. It's a really cool program. I can't believe it started right here locally."

For a free online lesson and more information about Mango's Passport program, visit mangolanguages.com.