On Friday our latest celebrity lesson–and first with a female athlete–goes live on the home page on Friday (peek at it here). What an honor to get to interview one of the biggest names in the WNBA, Ticha Penicheiro of the Sacramento Monarchs (who was also named Sacramento’s most eligible bachelorette by Forbes).

Ticha studied communications in college and may go into broadcasting following her professional career, so the Portuguese athlete seems pretty much like a native speaker. The lesson is sort of a three-parter with explanations of the terms, “steal,” “assist,” and the phrase “the sky’s the limit.” There were some bits about learning English that got cut, so here’s the rest of the interview.

Jason: Your brother plays basketball, your dad’s a coach. Basketball runs in the family. Does English run in the family?

Ticha: My brother always had American players on his team, and they would always come over to my house, so at a very young age, I was very familiar with the English language. Just like here you take foreign languages in school, a lot of people take Spanish, in Portugal, the majority of the people take English. So it’s something that you learn in school. My mom speaks English and my dad understands more than he speaks, he’s a little shy, and my brother speaks fluently.

Jason: Was a time when you first got here and you were going to Old Dominion that you had to struggle to speak English?

Ticha: In classes it was going too fast at first and I was trying to write everything the professor would say and I quickly realized I couldn’t do that because I couldn’t catch up. A lot of times I would just use a dictionary if there were some words that I didn’t know. We always had tutors and people we could ask questions when we weren’t sure what was going on, but I was just paying a lot of attention in class. I would really focus on everything that the professor would say, I would try to write it down. It wasn’t as easy because, you know, my English was OK but, to be in class with somebody who spoke that fast, it was kind of tough.

And finally, a picture of me with Ticha.

ENGLISH, BABY! BRINGS SCHOOLS INTO ITS SOCIAL NETWORK

Largest online ESL network now connects its more than one million students with English programs

Portland, O.R. – August 12, 2009

For the more than a billion people learning English around the world, to study abroad is the ultimate fantasy. And for those who do complete an English program in a foreign country, the experience is one to be proud of and recall frequently.

This summer, English, baby! (englishbaby.com), the world’s largest social network for people learning English, is launching new interactive school pages to make it easier than ever for students around the world to find an English program in the US and to keep in touch with their school after they graduate.

Versation, the parent company of English, baby!, built and manages the websites for the English school consortiums, American Association of Intensive English Programs (AAIEP) and University and College Intensive English Programs (UCIEP), each of which includes hundreds of programs all across the states.

“Our new school pages combine these great resources with the social networking features that keep our members coming back and keep our site growing,” says John Hayden, CEO and co-founder of English, baby!.

Ebaby! members can currently find any AAIEP or UCIEP program on English, baby!, and schools that register and pay $75 per month can customize their ad-free pages with text and photos, and can have “fans” among Ebaby! members who have attended the school or would like to. The “fans” are shown on the school’s page, virtually representing its community.

“It’s a great way for our members to stay connected with English programs in the US and experience the communities around those schools from their home countries,” says Hayden, who plans to offer school pages for programs outside the US by the end of the year.

About English, baby!

Founded in 2000, English, baby!, set out to teach English to the world in an innovative MTV-style manner, virtually immersing students in American culture and conversational English. Social networking features were introduced in 2006 and growth surged. Englishbaby.com is now the largest social network for English learners.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Jason Daniel – English, baby! Public Relations
Email: jason@versation.com
Tel: (888) 418-8021 x5#