As part of our ongoing celebrity English lesson series, I recently got to interview Marcin Gortat of the Orlando Magic. He is the first Polish born player in the NBA and nicknamed “the Polish Hammer.” Actually, I’ve heard that he prefers “the Polish Machine,” but I just think the hammer is so much more unique and fitting. I hope he changes his mind.

Normally, I go into these interviews knowing what the lesson will be about. But in this case, I tried something different and asked Marcin to pick his favorite basketball slang on the spot just before we started shooting. He chose “beat a shot.” Watch it below or see the full lesson here. Or you can even read about it in Polish on Marcin’s official website.

That night after the interview, I went to the game and watched Marcin and the Magic fall to my Portland Trailblazers. Marcin had a great game though, and every time he dunked or blocked a shot I stood up and yelled “bring down the hammer!” Then I went back to cheering for the Blazers. I must have confused a lot people around me.

Americans who speak French love to hang out together. I’ve found myself out with a group who at some point realized they all spoke French and decided to speak it right then. Let me tell you, I wish I knew I French too, because they were having lots of fun!

So when after filming an English lesson with French star, Tété, I went to his only show in the US this fall, it was no surprise to find the front rows full of people singing along and whispering to one another in French. And by the end of the set, Tété, came down off the stage and sang along with them with no microphone. You can read more about the show in the review I wrote for the Oregonian newspaper here in Portland.

But unlike my night out with friends that took an unexpected turn for the French, Tété is an inclusive kind of guy. When we met him at the recording studio, he gave us a tour. We wished we could have hung out all day! And even though I don’t know what they mean, I get the words to “Fils de cham” stuck in my head all the time now.

Following Nicolas Batum and Sebastien Le Toux, this is the third French celebrity English lesson we’ve had on English, baby! in the last year, more than any other nationality. But you just wait…we’ve got a celebrity English teacher from outer space coming up soon!

For more info on Tété, visit his website.

Today is a very special day for English, baby! After years of lessons about musicians and movie stars, we have our first lesson featuring an actual star! (Note: Our encounter with Jared Leto in Beijing came close but he didn’t contribute any vocab or grammar to the video.) Check out today’s music lesson, Party Vocab with Municipal Waste.

Now, Municipal Waste aren’t huge stars, but I’m a big fan and they are starting to break into the mainstream here and there (they got a review in Spin and I’m pretty sure they’ve been on MTV). Plus, the English lesson they could contribute was a no brainer. Who better to teach our members how to shotgun a beer?

So all in all, Municipal Waste turned out to be the perfect place to start my quest to get more and more artists to actually appear on the site. Bless them for being the first one! Now I will use their lesson as the example when I ask other artists to be in our videos. It may be a while until we’re doing slang lessons from the red carpet at award shows and breaking celebrity news with exclusive interviews, but today marks a small step in that direction.

If you feel like celebrating, watch the video and get wasted!