The April issue of Successful Promotions not only features Miley Cryus on the cover, it also has a five page story on viral marketing dos and don’ts by Kenneth Hein, a managing editor at AdweekMedia. The article outlines lessons that can be learned from the elven efforts of OfficeMax, a Carl’s Jr. mobile campain launched at a Lakers game, as well as anecdotes about 7-Eleven, Burger King, Axe, and a company you might have heard of called English, baby!

Kenneth tells the tale of our bonus guerrilla marketing sucess at the Beijing Olympics (we thought we were just making videos for marking later–turned out we were marking on the ground as well). Take a look at the portion of the article that’s about us here and the whole thing here. We’re really happy to have been included with such good company in such a good story.

So you might remember that I went to the TESOL Convention. But you might have forgotten that I had a job interview while I was there.  Turns out I got a job offer! So the Ebaby! teacher might go abroad. The job is on the beautiful coast of Turkey at a university with small class sizes and motivated students.

I am super excited about the opportunity, but as I was cleaning my house it hit me: where is all my stuff going to go? And what will I do without the fifty teaching books that I regularly reference like Zero Prep and my huge file cabinet of lessons (which of course I only have paper copies of)? I have heard EFL teachers talk about bringing one boo abroad (usually Azar).  But I just can’t imagine it.

And then I start to think about my other stuff: My poor furniture, clothes and colorful dishes that I’ll have to leave behind.  I know that is silly. I have lived aboard before and it is actually surprisingly easy to pack a years worth of stuff in two bags. I know that is really the least of my worries.

But truth be told, I am so excited about the opportunity and not really worried. I know it will be perfect. I still have a few weeks before I have to sign the contract, but I think my mind is made up.

Beren plays drums in a rock band called the Intelligence. She has been on tour before, though never outside the US. But starting next week, she’ll be traveling all over Europe playing shows for six weeks! Follow her adventures on her blog.

Take a look at the tour dates below. Is Beren coming to your city? You should go to the show and meet her! We promise she’s leaving her evil twin behind. She has some Ebaby! shirts and bracelets with her to give to Ebaby! members who come to her shows. You’ll be able to brag to your friends about meeting an Ebaby! cast member and you’ll match all the cool people we met in Beijing.

Apr 30 L’autre Canal in Nancy, France
May 1 Bunker in Bruxelles, Belgium
May 2 L’abordage in Evreux, France
May 4 Le Saint Des Seins in Toulouse, France
May 5 Live Factory in Nantes, France
May 6 Cave Aux Poetes in Roubais, France
May 7 La Peniche in Chalons sur Saone, France
May 8 Woodstock Boogie Bar in Limoges, France
May 9 La Cooperatice de Mai in Clermont Ferrant, France
May 11 Molodoi in Strasbourg, France
May 13 Point Ephemere in Paris, France
May 16 Confort Moderne in Poitier, France
May 21 La Cupa in Ancona, Italy
May 22 Festaintenda in Mortegliano, Italy
May 23 Beat Cafe in San Salvo, Italy
May 25 Bomberena in Tolosa, Spain
May 26 Wurlitzer Ballroom in Madrid, Spain
May 27 Side Car in Barcelona, Spain
May 28 Magazine Club in Valencia, Spain
May 30 Festival Mixed Up in Beauvais, France
May 31 Le Sambre in Rennes, France
Jun 1 Vlas Vegas Festival in Korttrijk, Belgium
Jun 2 Bar Mundial in Antwerp, Belgium
Jun 4 Boat Music Festival in Stockholm, Sweden
Jun 5 Debaser Medi in Stockholm, Sweden
Jun 6 Gloria Flames in Oslo, Norway
Jun 7 Loppen in Copenhagen, Denmark
Jun 8 Musikhuset Elaerket in Helsinki, Finland
Jun 10 Sonic Ballroom in Cologne, Germany
Jun 11 Paradisio in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jun 12 Patronnat in Haarlem, The Netherlands
Jun 13 Aucard de Tour in Tours, France

Watch the Intelligence’s MySpace for changes in tour dates. Here’s a photo of Beren with one of the shirts you can have if you meet up with her.

Last week, thousands of people gathered in Pioneer Square in Portland at a rally for the Trail Blazers, who qualified for the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2003. Each player said a few words, and one of the most memorable speeches was from Rudy Fernandez, who shouted, “Let’s go to win the playoff!” The line appears in the first part of this video:

I immediately saw a lot of people twitter this line because it was so charming in its enthusiasm and less than perfect grammar. Though Nicolas Batum is the only foreign player in the starting lineup, Portland has two Spaniards on its bench. When Sergio Rodriguez connects with Rudy for an ally-oop, the sports commentators refer to it as “the Spanish Armada.”

In both Sergio and Rudy’s first playoff game last Saturday, the Blazers lost terribly to the Rockets. I heard Sergio on the radio afterward saying he hopes the team “runs more” in this game. His English was a little rough–he seemed confused about what it meant to be tight (good) as a team and loose (relaxed) in a game. But of all explanations I heard of what went wrong in that 30 point loss, I like Sergio’s the best. The team did need to run more. Maybe it’s that simple. We’ll find out in 10 minutes when the game starts. I’ll be watching the Spanish Armada in particular because I really like the spirit they bring to the team at this climax of the season.

Post game update: The Armada did it! The Blazers won a very close game, and Rudy scored the final points by making a pair of free throws. Who’s your favorite international player in the playoffs?

Since we just hit one million members last week, we decided to make a week’s worth of lessons that had to do with the number one million. It doesn’t sound to hard, right? It’s a number you hear a lot. But once we had What Would You Do with a Million Dollars?, a lesson about the millions made by celebrities and a lesson about the lottery, we started to notice a trend. What would make a good one-million topic that didn’t have to do with money?

Of course! The phrase “thanks a million“! It pretty much sums how we feel about the occasion–very grateful that a more than a million people around the world have chosen to learn on English, baby! and give us a reason to what we enjoy doing! A lot of people in the comments of the lesson were sweet enough to say, “thanks a million!” right back at us.

There were also a lot of good shout outs to other things people are grateful for. One member Colombia, andrescisneros, said “thanks a million” to his mother who, “who knows about my needs.” Amido Hernan Rios, also from Colombia, is thankful for “persons who are protecting our planet against air pollution, water pollution, land soil pollution, etc…” A member from China named andysun actually saw the phrase as a way to meet hardships: “whatever you meet or suffer, it is a good way to say ‘thanks a million’ cause the good things make you better, the bad things make you stronger.”

I was happy to see how an EXTREME English lesson, which was designed to be really silly, made people think about what really means a lot to them and express it in English. Our million members continue to amaze me.

The iPhone has an app that makes the screen look like a cowbell and makes a ‘ding!’ sound whenever you tap it. It also has an app that makes the screen look like a glass of beer, which you can pour out. So you’d better believe it has apps to help you with all the different aspects of learning a language. In fact, the folks at onlinecollegedegree.org compiled 50 of them in a recent post.

Of course there are the simple translators you’d expect, but there are some definite standouts. Take the idiom dictionary. That’s got to come in handy. When I travel and speak to non-native speakers, they commonly say, “Please, don’t use any slang!” So if they’re around someone they don’t feel comfortable asking to alter their speech, they could just slyly plug anything that doesn’t make sense to them into this app as if they’re sending a text.

But definitely the one that sounds most interesting to me is the Translator with Voice. While a lot of online dictionaries have an audio component, I feel that this app is one step closer to realizing sci-fi fantasy I hope to see in my lifetime. When, oh when! will there be an app that automatically translates whatever you say? You know what I’m talking about, the universal translator. We definitely need to invent that before we invent deep space travel. iPhone developers, go!

Sasha Vujacic’s lesson on “the machine” was really popular. There were lots of comments from people talking what kind of machine they want to be, and the video even appeared on the website of the LA Times.

But in the interest of time, we left out a lot of good stuff from the interview, like Sasha talking about his new shoe deal in China and growing up in (the now former) Yugoslavia.

Jason: So you have a shoe deal coming up in China, is that right?

Sasha: Yes, I do. I’m very excited about it. We reached an agreement and I’m going to have my own signature shoe. The company is called Peak and I can’t wait to wear them in the games. It’s going to be fun.

Jason: Did you help design the shoes yourself and pick what they’re going to look like?

Sasha: Yes, I did. I wanted not only to help design it, but to make it feel as comfortable as they can be and as stable as they can be for basketball players to play with them. I think it’s gonna be a good shoe.

Jason: Have you ever been to China?

Sasha: Yes, I went there for Basketball Without Borders to promote basketball in Asia with Yao and Scottie Pippen. It was fun. It was an amazing experience.

Jason: What’s your strategy for learning languages?

Sasha: Well, the thing is, I was very young when my country kind of split apart. So as a young kid, I spoke two languages already. And then going to Italy, it was very new for me. I didn’t know anything but, “Good morning.” In five years there I realized that all my friends and everybody I was playing with or hanging out with, they spoke just Italian and English was optional. At times, when they wanted to, they spoke it, but most of the time it was Italian. Lucky for me, I knew a little bit of English when I came to Italia and spending a lot of time there, I learned Italian.

Jason: And then when you came here, how hard was it for you to learn English?

Sasha:  I knew English since I was probably eleven or ten. In school we always had English as a second language. I started in school very young. Our country is very small so in order to have a second language or third language, you have to go with English or Italian or whatever you think you’re going to do later on in life and in school we always English as a second language.

Jason:  So when you first got here, did you do any speaking Italian with Kobe?

Sasha:  Yes, I did since day one. He speaks really good Italian and we kind of clicked from day one. Coming to America, I didn’t expect that anybody would speak Italian and then learning about the Lakers, learning about Kobe, I had the opportunity to find out that he speaks really good Italian and we kind of clicked from day one.

Jason: Did you know what “the Machine” meant right away? Were you familiar with the English slang calling someone a machine?

Sasha: Yes, of course. This is my fifth year in the states and five years in Los Angeles, you learn a lot from slang to…anything. I thought it was fun in the beginning, but everybody liked it and I’ve got to just represent it.

Jason: Do you ever feel like it’s a lot of pressure to be “the Machine”?

Sasha: No, I think it’s good. I think it’s good if people recognize you as the Machine and I just gotta play up to that level and I’m waiting for opportunities to shine in the upcoming game.

Jason: Do any of your teammates call you the Machine?

Sasha: Last year, when all this started, it was kind of funny because some of the trainers brought up a YouTube video by people that made something about myself and it was just funny. It was interior joke in the locker room and inside the practice facility and it was going on forever.

Here’s the latest “Machine” video:

For the past few months, English baby! has been featuring celebrity English lessons in which a star explains how to use a bit of conversational English.

Our most recent lesson with Sasha Vujacic of the LA Lakers, was featured on The Los Angeles Times website and the website of The Oregonian, as well as lakers-fan.com. The interview was also mentioned on The Los Angeles Times site before it was posted.

Ebaby! celebrity lessons have also been covered by many other media outlets:

• Portland Trail Blazer Nicolas Batum’s lesson appeared on basketusa.com, 95.5 The Game, PDX Pipeline, and Yahoo! Sports.
• San Francisco 49er Vernon Davis’ lesson appeared in The Press Democrat and The Mercury News
• The Thermals lesson appeared on localCut.