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!

This Friday, we are featuring our first English lesson with a professional soccer player! We were thrilled to learn we would have French player Sebastien Le Toux on the site, especially after learning how thrilled he is to be playing in the US. Take a peak at our lesson on “flick” with Sebastien Le Toux of Sounders FC.

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!

Today’s music lesson is an interview with Inara George from electro jazz duo the Bird and the Bee. She spoke to me on the from her home in Los Angeles back in August. She teaches, (what else?) the phrase, “the birds and the bees” and she does such a good job. Her sexy, languid voice must be driving our teenage boy members crazy.

We were inspired to ask Inara to do a lesson when “Love Letter To Japan” started showing up on the charts in Asia. It’s such a catchy song. Take a look at the video and read the outtakes from the interview below.

The Bird & The Bee – Love Letter To Japan

Jason: When we emailed, you mentioned that you’re working from 10am to noon today. What job do you have where you work for 2 hours in the middle of the day like that?

Inara: Oh, I’m working with Greg, writing stuff.

Jason: Oh, do you take sort of a craftsperson approach to it where you do it at a particular time every day?

Inara: No. I mean we do it whenever we’re free. We just sort of fit it in when we can. Sometimes we do it, sometimes we don’t, it just depends.

Jason: Cool. You guys just played with Katy Perry in Hollywood. How was that?

Inara: It was fun. We haven’t been playing a ton lately, so it’s always fun to play a show.

Jason: How did you find her fans?

Inara: They were very sweet. It seemed like we had some fans of our own in the audience too which is always a nice thing. We haven’t opened up for anyone in a long time, I think since our first record came out. So, you know, it’s always a little bit different because you don’t have the whole crowd. But it seemed like the audience was into it, so that was cool.

Jason: The “Love Letter To Japan” video has sort of a video game theme. Is that something you experienced when you were in Japan?

Inara: No. The label chose that song as the single and they wanted to do a video and we had a bunch of different video directors submit their ideas for it and that was one that we thought would be fun.

Jason: So you didn’t know that would be the single?

Inara: You know, you just write songs…and we didn’t even think that song was going to make it on the record. But I guess it ended up being the single. And these days, singles aren’t really…it’s not like it’s getting on the radio. They call it a “focus track.” I guess that’s just what they focus their energy on.

Visit the Bird and the Bee’s website and their MySpace.

Today’s lesson is one of the best interview lessons we’ve ever featured on English, baby! As you can imagine, Violent J, one half of the brains behind Insane Clown Posse, is a hilarious guy. But who would have guessed he’d be so good at defining the term “posse” on the fly? Just goes to show that he’s at the top of his game. No wonder ICP’s new album, Bang! Pow! Boom! is one of the band’s most successful yet.

Portions of this interview were published first by the Oregonian as a preview for ICP’s upcoming show in Portland on September 23. Below is everything not included in the English lesson.

Jason: How has the Dark Carnival changed since you left it seven years ago?

Violent J: It hasn’t changed. It’s a very real magic going on here. I hope I don’t sound like every other band. I don’t know what every other band sounds like. But I’m telling you there is a very legit, very real magic going on within the Dark Carnival. It was there the whole time we were doing the Joker’s Cards and it’s there again. You can feel it in the audience. It’s the Dark Carnival! It’s like it’s there! And I could pass a lie detector test. I believe it’s a very real thing. I don’t think it exists to be called the Dark Carnival, I think that’s what we named it.

Jason: ICP is really the only band that I can think of that created an entire sub culture on it’s own. How did that happen? How did it get to be that you could be a Juggalo in the same way that could be a goth or a punk?

Violent J: I credit that to the Dark Carnival, to the magic, because it certainly wasn’t in our plans. It wasn’t anything we thought up, you know what I mean? Just as incredible as it is to somebody looking at it from the outside, you can imagine how incredible it is to us.

Jason: So it’s totally mysterious. It’s not something you could do again.

Violent J: No. And it’s not something we planned or manufactured. Even the name “Juggalo,” I’m not 100% sure where that came from. I have a hard time thinking of Juggalos as just another word for ICP fans. There are other bands they love and there are things we present to Juggalos that don’t work. Like, for example, at the Gathering of the Juggalos, me and Shaggy will bring a band that we love and we’ll tell the Juggalos, “We’ve loved them our whole life and we want you to see them,” and they’ll get booed offstage.

Jason: It’s not even within your control.

Violent J: Exactly. We love wrestling. At the gathering, we always present a huge wrestling show called Bloody Mania. We put thousands and thousands of dollars into it. And the thing is, Juggalos throw pop or beer into the ring and it makes the rope slippery and the wrestlers end up being not able to do half the moves. This year, we went out there and we asked the Juggalos, “Look, we worked really hard on this show,” we told them, “you can throw things if you want, but we’re just letting you know that it’s gonna take the value of the show down and we’d prefer if you didn’t.” But they didn’t give a f— about that. So that’s what I’m saying. They’re not just our fans, they’re their own entity. They could very easily move on from us one day. I hope they won’t.

Jason: Do you remember the first time you saw a clown as a child?

Violent J: Wow, I’ve never been asked that. I don’t think I remember. I just remember them always being creepy. I remember going to the state fair in Detroit back in the day where they actually had legitimate freak shows. They had this guy named Crab Boy who was this old man and his hands were actually deformed and they looked like crab pincers. I remember sneaking in under the tent and he had a hose for people who were sneaking in and he sprayed us with the hose! I remember that more than I remember seeing the clowns. I remember the whole carnival. And you know how now if you go to the circus, the ring master is the host of a local radio show or something? I remember when they had the real ringmaster who traveled with the circus. I was affected by that.

Jason: So ICP is meant to channel the broader freakshow and circus experience?

Violent J: Absolutely. I also remember I went to a freakshow and there was a guy outside a tent yelling, “Billy Reed is still alive! You’ve got to look at him! You’ve got to see him! He’s amazing! He’s still alive!” And when we went in there it was some kid with long hair putting nails up his nose. But what really got me was the guy yelling, “Billy Reed is still alive!” I remember being a kid and being mesmerized by that. You know, “Who is Billy Reed, and why is he still alive?” I couldn’t believe that people traveled around the country as a freak show. That was just so incredible to me. I also mentioned before that we’re huge wrestling fans and it’s so weird to know that professional wrestling also somehow evolved from carnivals and I didn’t know that until way later in my life.

Jason: Have you ever read Geek Love?

Violent J: No.

Jason: It’s a novel about a freakshow and part of it takes place in Portland. It’s good if you ever need something to read on the road.

Violent J: I’m all about reading!

Jason: So you just finished a new film, a western.

Violent J: That movie is done and when people would bring that up for the last ten years…sometimes I dreaded that question. Because ever since we did the first movie…We did the first movie in 1999. It was called Big Money Hustlas. We were funded by Island Def Jam. But we always knew that we would do a second movie. But it took us ten years to build our company up so that it was strong enough to do it by ourselves. Because we weren’t gonna do no bootleg-ass movie. We were gonna do one that was better than the first movie, you know? And it took us ten years to be able to finally do it and do it right. We did it this year. A lot of great things happened this year. This year we reached number 4 on Billboard which we also did 10 years ago. But 10 years ago, it was with Island Def Jam and now we did it on our own strictly on Psychopathic Records. It’s like we’ve learned how to do everything completely on our own and now we can shoot a multimillion dollar movie without going bankrupt. We can put a record out and work it and get it in the top 5 and we’re super proud of our own company. So, the movie is done and the only reason we’re not hurrying up and putting it out is we put so much into the movie that before we just release it on DVD or something, our guys are completely, totally studying the movie industry. We’re trying to learn so that when we release it, we can release it in China. We can release it in Sweden. We’re trying to learn how to get it into the movie festivals. We’re talking to distributors. We’re trying to learn anything we can about the movie industry so that it don’t just come out on DVD and it’s hot for a month and then it’s gone. We put way too much into this. We have a tentative release for February of next year, but we’re learning the ropes so that we can get maximum benefit out of it.

Jason: I first heard ICP on the radio in the mid-nineties and on your new album you compare listening to the radio to having a dick in your ear and I was just wondering what’s changed since the ’90s?

Violent J: Did you live in Portland when you heard us on the radio?

Jason: I lived in Albuquerque.

Violent J: See, that blows my mind. Because I didn’t know we had any radio play in Albuquerque.

Jason: Yeah, I was 13 and “The Great Milenko” was on the radio and that was the first time I heard it.

Violent J: Really? If it was being played in Albuquerque, I guarantee you, it was being played only in Albuquerque. Radio has never been a part of our history. Even when we were on Island and before that Jive Records, we never received any real radio play. We don’t have any hits. That’s one thing that’s unique about the band. There’s not that one song that everybody knows us for. But I think it’s better that way. If you’re on the radio, every time you make an album you have to hope they’ll play it on the radio. At least we succeed or fail based on what we do and not what somebody at a radio station thinks of us.

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.

I am writing today’s TESOL Convention Tidbit from the Denver airport. After a “flash blizzard” yesterday, flights are delayed. So I’m typing as I sit in an uncomfortable chair outside gate A30, waiting for my flight.

Luckily, the snow didn’t affect the conference. I was a busy bee… buzzing around to six different sessions.  The tidbit comes from Ruelaine Stokes, Andrew McCullough, and Nigel Caplan’s session titled “Beyond ‘Help!’ Diagnosing the L2 Writer’s  Essay: A Strategies-Based Approach.” Their session was delightful and full of witty metaphors. (For fear of ruining the humor, this post is metaphor free.)

Anyway, this panel had a great way to get students writing by using a free writing activity. They called the activity “Pick a Sentence and Go!” Students chose a sentence from a list to begin their story. They were instructed to write non-stop for ten minutes (in typical free write fashion), but they were also instructed to use the words “suddenly” and “murky” and the phrase, “rich beyond my wildest dreams.” Giving students words (especially words like “suddenly” that allow students to change the direction of their writing) help them sustain the freewriting. Other freewriting ideas including having students keep track of how many words they are able to write each time. Over a term, students will be able to see their progress in writing fluently. For other great tidbits from this session go to their webpage and download all the handouts.

Even though today was another busy at the TESOL Convention, I wish I could have done more. I didn’t go to a lot of sessions, instead I went to a few longer sessions, presented my poster and had a job interview. Still my favorite tidbit comes from the first session of my day titled: “Serving Adolescent ELLs and Struggling Readers: Similarities and Differences.” David Moore, one of the presenters, gave a quick three step process to help students find and write the main idea.

1. Find the most important word in the passage–write the topic. (ex. Facebook)
2. Expand on the topic by adding “and.” He calls this a comment. (ex. Facebook and how teens communicate)
3. Write the comment in a nice sentence. This is the main idea. (ex. Facebook has changed how teens communicate.)

By giving students this process, David Moore says it is much easier for students to find and write the main idea of a reading passage. I know I am going to give it a try.

English teachers from all over the world have congregated in the mile high city, Denver, Colorado. This week is the national TESOL convention (all part of March Madness). And, as tribute to my trip here, I am going to post my favorite tidbits from the conference each day.

Today, my favorite tidbit comes from Ji Hyun Byun and Min-Jung Jee at the University of Texas Austin. They gave some great advice on creating a student-centered “Book Club.” During a three week process, students selected a book to read. They were given selection criteria from the instructor. Then, each student found interesting books. They interviewed friends about book suggestions and then presented their suggestions to the class which voted for the ones they liked best.

Then the students split into groups of four to read the chosen books. Each group member had a specific role each week in the book club (create a timeline, describe characters, find a favorite passage, develop discussion questions). Research after the fact showed that students enjoyed the book club.

Sounds like a plan to me! Look for more inspiring ideas from the TESOL Convention tomorrow.

Last week I interviewed Sasha Vujacic, the Los Angeles Lakers‘ Slovenian point guard, for an English lesson. But before we even got it edited and on our site (it will be up Friday), the interview was mentioned in the LA Times:

Sasha Vujacic finished off his day doing a stand up interview for a website called English Baby!.  It appears to be a place where folks can come to improve their spoken English.  I don’t know exactly what they talked about, but the interview finished with the dude on the mic and Sasha high fiving and yelling, “English Baby!”  That’s going to be the first thing I do to Sasha when I walk into the locker room tomorrow night.  I encourage other members of the media to do the same.

The high-five was something we came up with for the Culture Cruise and did a lot of at the Olympics, but I felt it never got the attention it deserved, so thanks, Brian Kamenetzky, for giving it a bump! But the best part of the LA Times post was the comments. A lot of people simply signed off on their comments with “English, baby!” but some got more excited about this new greeting than others.

English, BABY!

That’s my new catch phrase. I don’t care what anyone says.

Posted by: Xodus | March 18, 2009 at 03:18 PM

We’re not the only Lakers/English education connection:

as a former English teacher, i’m also down with the “English, BABY!” catch-phrase.

Posted by: leonardbast | March 18, 2009 at 04:53 PM

But this one is unsurpassed for enthusiasm:

Q: What’s 4+8?
A: English, baby!

Q: What’s for dinner?
A: English, baby!

Q: Who is 12th all time on the NBA’s all-time scoring list?
A: English, baby! (ok, that one’s actually correct)

The point is, this is my new answer to every question posed to me, at least until it becomes annoying enough that I get death threats.

English, baby!

Posted by: puddle | March 18, 2009 at 05:59 PM

It looks like my dream of starting an Internet meme may be on the horizon. Maybe I should call home, “Mom! I’m a lolcat!

In our on-going quest to recruit international stars to help people around the world learn English, today on English, baby! there is a lesson on the terms “a.k.a.” and “alter ego” with Nicholaus Arson, who, as guitar player, is one of the leading creative forces behind the gold-selling Swedish garage rock sensation, the Hives.

The Hives just finished a fourth month break, and starting next week will tour Sweden, Finland and Japan, so we figured now would be a good time to feature them on the site. I was thrilled that Nicholaus took my interview request–I remember listening to the Hives’ 2000 album, Vidi Vidi Vicious over and over in my car as a teenager. I got it out to refresh my memory before the interview and still remembered most of the words. Just before we got on the phone I was listening to the Hives’ most recent The Black and White Album and found myself literally dancing in my office. They’ve only gotten better. Here is the unedited text of my phone conversation with Nicholaus.

Jason: So you guys just took a break from playing shows. What were you doing?

Nicholaus: Oh, just having time off, pretty much. Not playing was the main plan, I think.

Jason: How do you relax when you take a few months off like that?

Nicholaus: Well, most of us go home. And I don’t know…Once you’re in a touring mode, you’re used to working at least some portion of the day or at least doing stuff that’s very band-related all the time. You come home and you have a hard time winding down like the first few weeks or so. You pretty much get up in the morning and you start playing instruments and stuff. You work on new stuff. But after a while you get into a more easy-going mode where you can sort of kick back and just do whatever.

Jason: Right on. So you guys weren’t working on new material or anything?

Nicholaus: We are every once in a while. I think we’re working more than we expected to be working, but it’s your hobby. It’s what you do. I suppose it’s a job as well, but it’s what I do when I want to have fun, you know?

Jason: I’ve heard you might have a new album this year. Is that true?

Nicholaus: Eh…maybe.

Jason: What’s your next album going to sound like?

Nicholaus: I have no idea yet, actually. We’ve worked on a bunch of songs, but we’re not in a state where we’ve decided what songs to go with yet or anything. We’re more bulking up for something.

Jason: So you guys are about to do five shows in Sweden and I feel like a lot of bands that aren’t from Sweden will only do one or two cities and I just wondered what you think they’re missing if you don’t do five shows in Sweden.

Nicholaus: There is the possibility of doing five shows in Sweden for most bands. But if you’re on tour…like, we go to Czech Republic, we pretty much only play Prague, you know? Or if it’s summer, we may do a festival here and there, but it’s pretty much what we’re used to doing. But for us it’s a thing where we used to tour Sweden a lot like in ’99 or 2000, we did tours of Sweden, so we played every bush in this country. For us it’s sort of like going back to places we haven’t played in a long time.

Jason: What’s the hidden gem? What’s the spot that people don’t usually go to but they might should?

Nicholaus: Well, up north is usually good and they’re not spoiled with shows at all, you know. So it’s great to go up north. I guess it’s like…I don’t know…Canada. Canada is usually good. Going up north is something that you may not want to miss out on.

Jason: Gotcha. I wanted to ask you about Randy Fitzsimmons, the songwriter for the Hives.

Nicholaus: No comment. That’s a touchy subject.

Jason: Oh, is it? I didn’t realize it was touchy…

Nicholaus: Touchy for some…for Randy, you know. We’ve sworn allegiance to him. He wants to remain anonymous.

Jason: Right. Definitely. But you collect his checks, right? You have like an alias of Randy so you can pick up his checks?

Nicholaus: Yeah.

Jason: And you guys also have a well-known song, “A.K.A. I.D.I.O.T.” and so I was just wondering if you could explain for our members who are learning English, what “a.k.a.” means?

Nicholaus: Also known as.

Jason: Yeah. Some people think that Randy might be an alter ego of a band member since he’s so hidden. Do you have an alter ego?

Nicholaus: Well, people usually think that we have alter egos because we’re sometimes very calm off-stage and then we’re, perhaps, energetic onstage. People usually think that it’s an alter ego. But it’s not really. You’re the same guy, but that’s how you move to music that you like, you know. We don’t use alter egos in the band, and Randy Fitzsimmons is not an alias for anybody in the band. I collect the money and then we split it six ways. He’s always been a part of the band, but he doesn’t tour and doesn’t show his face.

Jason: That’s so cool. That’s so unusual. One last thing. Can I ask you about Japan real quick?

Nicholaus: Yeah, Japan, yeah sure.

Jason: You’re about to play there and you’ve been there quite a few times. Is it different than playing other places? Is there something special about Japan?

Nicholaus: It is a bit different, actually. It’s a very controlled environment. People aren’t drunk at the shows or anything, but they go crazy. They might be drunk at the club afterwards, or they’re very well-behaved drunks or something. I don’t really know. It’s hard to tell. As soon as you stop playing a song, they’re quiet to listen to what you’re going to say. But as soon as you start playing a song, they go completely nuts.

Jason: Unlike…

Nicholaus: Unlike maybe England or Germany or Sweden. Any place where people drink a lot, you know. Then you’re sort of playing to a sounding amoeba. It’s just a pack of sweaty people forming into one, falling over and screaming and never being quiet. Which is sort of what we always get used to playing to. There is something weird about playing Japan.

Jason: Do you guys like that contrast, being able to play to a calmer audience or an audience that at least slows down when you slow down?

Nicholaus: Um, I don’t know. It’s sort of like trying to outrun your shadow, you know. There’s a freakiness to it that I’m not used to since I’m used to playing to the amoeba type crowd. But I think it’s a respect thing and I appreciate it. They want to show you respect by quieting down and listening to what you have to say.