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.
If English, baby! were a country and English lessons made at the Olympics were medals, with 14 different English lessons from this year’s winter Olympics in Vancouver, we would be in 7th place in the medal count, right between Korea and China.
Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue are Olympic legends. But we also had the pleasure of meeting some young athletes at their first games. Half pipe snowboarder Liu Jiayu taught our members what it means to ride “goofy” and along with her teammates Sun Zhifeng and Cai Xuetong, what it means to “drop in.” I’d say these count as gold medals as well if only because CCTV (Chinese state television) was there for the lessons as well and did a story about the athletes testing their English skills upon arriving in Canada.
Without a doubt, our funniest lesson of the Games was “cold as ice” which we filmed at the men’s luge competition. “Pass the torch” was also a standout because we got to interview someone who carried the Olympic torch. These must be worth silver.
So in the bronze category are all the lessons we created without the help of a competition or athlete, but on our own with the people we met in Vancouver. These Olympics were such an incredible party–the streets were always packed with people from all over the world. We met a lot of them in our lesson on “break the ice,” when we went shopping for ice skates in “cheapskate,” and when we raced them on the ice at Robson Square to illustrate what it means to “fly by.”
Our local NBC affiliate even did a story about our Olympic victories. It’s a great clip, and it was so cool to see our logo in the center of the NBC Olympic Zone!
Olympic gold medalists Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue on English, baby!
Just when we thought interviewing the Chinese snowboarding team was as good as it could get for us during our visit to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics to help our members learn English, we got an incredible opportunity. A few days after winning the gold medal in pairs figure skating, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo met with English, baby! outside the skating practice facility in Vancouver.
This couple is one of the best stories of the Olympics. After skating together for more than 17 years, Zhao Hongbo proposed to Shen Xue on the ice in 2007. This year, the pair came out of retirement to try for Olympic gold, the only championship they had not yet claimed, and in Vancouver, their dreams came true.
After we got to know each other a bit, we asked Hongbo and Xue to do another lesson on the phrase “head over heels.” You can really see how warm these athletes are in this rare look at their personal side. This video was an immediate hit in China. It got more than 50,000 views in the first weekend on this Chinese video site without us promoting it at all!
As far as we know, this was the only English interview Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue gave while in Canada. We are so honored to have been able to participate in a little bit of their gold medal moment.
So many Olympic sports come down to perfection. Can you do what you are attempting to do perfectly? In the luge, a few thousandths of a second can separate the competitors, and in half pipe snowboarding, one small wobble can cost you the gold.
And so it was with Liu Jiayu on Thursday night in the ladies’ half pipe finals, who just a few days before taught an English lesson on the term “goofy” for English, baby! Unlike the men’s half pipe, in which Shaun White just got so much higher than everyone else and was the undisputed victor, the ladies’ competition could have been won by any of the competitors going into the second run. Liu Jiayu–who entered the competition ranked 2nd–came into the final run in fourth place. She looked so good up until her final trick, when her board grazed the blue rim of the half pipe. She didn’t fall, but she wobbled, and instantly she and everyone watching knew, she would not advance past fourth.
So while she was explaining what it means to ride goofy earlier in the week (although she rides regular), Liu Jiayu actually ended up demonstrating the other meaning of goofy–you know, funny looking and silly. Because for a split second after she hit the rim of the half pipe on that final run, she looked a little goofy catching her balance. But at age 18, I have a feeling the world will be getting to know Liu Jiayu better over the next few years and that she will continue to demonstrate how uncharacteristic that goofy moment was.
If it weren’t for the cameras, you wouldn’t have known they were Olympic athletes. At the airport, the Chinese snowboarding team just looked like a bunch of kids arriving in Vancouver to head up to the mountain.
Two media outlets were there to capture the arrival of the greatest foreign threat to a sport dominated by Americans, CCTV–the NBC of China–and English, baby!
CCTV’s coverage aired that night. The story took the angle that the athletes’ first challenge in Canada was to use their English skills with the media.
The athletes acted like seasoned, secretive stars and didn’t give any in-depth responses to questions from the CCTV reporter. Luckily, we weren’t looking for anything in-depth from them, we were just hoping to have fun making a couple of English lessons. Take a look at our first video with Liu Jiayu(刘佳宇), Sun Zhifeng(孙志峰), and Cai Xuetong(蔡雪彤), a lesson on the phrase “drop in.”
The finals for women’s half pipe are just about to start and we are excited to see how Liu Jiayu and Sun Zhifeng, who made it through the preliminary rounds will do!
Our most recent English lesson with an NBA player is Channing Frye teaching the term “breakthrough.” I watched Channing play for the last few years when he was a Portland Trailblazer. And like most people in Portland, I liked him a lot. He fit the city really well–he did public service announcements for green issues and blogged about how much he liked the restaurants. Channing met his wife in Portland and has kept his apartment here after moving to the Phoenix Suns this season.
I remember when I first heard that Channing Frye had hit three threes in one game. I thought, “Good for him!” But then I heard the same thing about the next game. And the one after that. It appeared Channing had had a breakthrough!
Although he didn’t see much playing time during his tenure with Portland, when Frye and Suns came to Portland to play the Trailblazers last month, Channing had become a starter. Blazer fans usually boo when the visiting team’s starting lineup is announced, but when Channing’s name was called everyone cheered. He went on to make 5 three-pointers that night! Maybe doing this interview earlier in the day helped him get ready.
There is a 44% chance this shot went in. That’s more than 10% better than ever before in Channing’s professional career!
Channing on his balcony in Portland.
This week English, baby! is featuring a really fun English lesson with Shane Battier from the Houston Rockets. I came across this blog which determined that Shane is (or at least was, not sure what the current numbers are) the best at buzzer beating (specifically shot clock buzzers). So we asked him to teach “buzzer beater” and other last-second vocab.
After we approached Shane, we learned he knows a little Mandarin. He gets lessons every year before he goes to China for a couple of weeks to promote his Peak signature shoe. He was shy about sharing his full Mandarin vocabulary in the video, but he dropped a “ni hao” for his fans in China.
And boy, does Shane have fans in China. This Chinese news clip, from which I pulled the shot of the t-shirt above, shows the welcome he got while getting off a plane. The Chinese aren’t just big fans smart basketball and stellar defense, Shane’s profile is boosted by frequent airing of TV commercials he stars in (you can see most of them on Battier’s MogoTXT site). This blog post even has a quote from an NBA player who spent some time in China and got really tired of seeing Shane on TV!
I think it’s great that Shane is so well-known in China. He’s such a well-rounded an unselfish player, he makes a great ambassador for the US and basketball. He has a reputation for being a smart guy, and, in fact, he saved me when we were taping this interview. I started talking to him and then completely blanked out. I had to wait in the media room for a while because the team was late to their shoot around that day and I let my mind get sleepy! Anyway, when he saw I had blanked out, Shane said, “buzzer beater, man,” and reminded me what we were supposed to be talking about. It was clear he had thought about the definition of the term in advance. No wonder his is the best celebrity English lesson we’ve done so far!
I talked to Sebastien on the phone for a few minutes the day before I went up to the Sounders’ practice field in Tukwila, Washington. We discussed what slang term would be good for him to teach. I asked him if he uses any slang phrases frequently and he said he might, but he might not know they are slang! I hadn’t thought of that.
His teammates couldn’t think of any idioms he uses often, so I looked at a list of soccer slang and chose “flick” because it’s slang outside of soccer as well. Plus, a short high kick was something Sebastien could demonstrate easily. He was more than happy to demonstrate how it can be an effective way to pass a defender by kicking a ball over my head!
Needless to say, the interview was a lot of fun. It was wild seeing part of the Sounders practice as well. I wound up catching a header drill where each player took turns trying to score on the keeper with their heads.
Here’s a shot of Sounders practice. Sebastien (who is called “Seba” by his teammates) is in the long shorts and blue shirt.
The Sounders will finish a successful season at home against FC Dallas on Saturday and then head to the MLS playoffs!