English, baby! is a social network and online curriculum for learning conversational English and slang based in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. The service is used by more than 1.6 million members, making it one of the largest, most well-established and highest rated online communities of English learners and teachers. English, baby! is most popular in China, where roughly a quarter of its users are based. Other countries in which the service is popular include

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, India,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, the United States, and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. The company offers a free membership as well as a paid, premium membership and frequently uses celebrities in its English lesson videos.

Lessons

English, baby! is home to several thousand English lessons. Many of the lessons feature celebrities teaching a term or phrase and discussing how they learned English if it is not their first language. Celebrities who have taught English lessons on English, baby! include

NBA All-Stars The National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is an annual exhibition basketball game. It is the main event of the NBA All-Star Weekend. Traditionally, the All-Star Game featured a conference-based format, featuring a team composed of ...

such as

Steve Nash Stephen John Nash (born 7 February 1974) is a Canadian professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 18 seasons in the NBA, ...

and

Dwight Howard Dwight David Howard II (born December 8, 1985) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Superman" for his athletic prowess, he is an NBA champion, eight-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA Team honoree, five-time All-Defen ...

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

gold medalist figure skaters

Shen Xue Shen Xue (; born 13 November 1978) is a Chinese retired pair skater. With her husband Zhao Hongbo, Shen is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2002 & 2006 Olympic bronze medalist, a three-time World champion (2002, 2003 and 2007), a three-time ...

and

Zhao Hongbo Zhao Hongbo (; born 22 September 1973) is a Chinese retired pair skater. With his wife Shen Xue, Zhao is the 2010 Figure skating at the Olympics, Olympic champion, the 2002 & 2006 Figure skating at the Olympics, Olympic bronze medalist, a three ...

, and musicians

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She is noted for her Optimism, optimistic and Idealism, idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including Rock music, rock, Po ...

and Girl Talk. The website also produces an English lesson soap opera series and

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

style videos. Other lessons are based on

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

s instead of videos and based on improvised conversations between native English speaking actors. Most lessons include grammar instruction, quizzes, and vocabulary words. Much of the lesson content is only available to premium "Super Members" who pay $5 per month. These members also have access to a live teacher to answer questions for them. In addition to students,

ESL English as a second or foreign language refers to the use of English by individuals whose native language is different, commonly among students learning to speak and write English. Variably known as English as a foreign language (EFL), Engli ...

teachers can create lessons on English, baby! or use content from the site in their classrooms.

History

English, baby! was founded in 2000 when John Hayden returned from working for

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

and teaching English in Japan. He found that many students lacked a means of learning conversational English and started English, baby! to create an online experience similar to traveling in the English-speaking world or studying abroad. Hayden remains the company's CEO. In 2005, Versation Inc., a parent company for English, baby! was created. Versation also produces alumni management and recruitment software for colleges and universities. Following the popularity of sites like

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, English, baby! introduced social networking features in 2006, enabling members to create profiles on the site. In 2009, English, baby! registered its one millionth member. English, baby! has content-sharing partnerships with companies such

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

in China, and

HOOP Magazine ''HOOP'' is an official National Basketball Association, NBA publication, produced by Professional Sports Publications. The magazine features in-depth interviews with players, and also highlights the players' lives off the court. Other popular s ...

in Japan.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://englishbaby.com
Versation.com
Social networking language-learning websites Organizations based in Portland, Oregon 2000 establishments in Oregon American educational websites