English, baby! to create lessons based on winter sports at the 2010 games

Whether it's the ski jumpers who "catch some air," or the skeleton sliders who "throw caution to the wind," speeding downhill face first, every sport at the winter Olympics epitomizes a slang idiom. English, baby! (englishbaby.com) is going to make sure that no matter what flag you fly,

English, baby! to create lessons based on winter sports at the 2010 games

Portland, Ore. - January 22, 2010

Whether it's the ski jumpers who "catch some air," or the skeleton sliders who "throw caution to the wind," speeding downhill face first, every sport at the winter Olympics epitomizes a slang idiom. English, baby! (englishbaby.com) is going to make sure that no matter what flag you fly, you'll be able to pick up some new English phrases during the upcoming games in Vancouver, Canada.

With over a million members around the world, English, baby! is the largest online  community of people learning English. It specializes in fun ways to learn authentic spoken English, such as slang lessons from NBA athletes and gold-selling artists, and reality TV-style extreme depictions of idioms, like jumping into a freezing cold lake to demonstrate "freeze my butt off." The site sent a team to create videos at the 2008 summer games in Beijing, and it aims to make some of it's most focused and educational videos ever in Vancouver.

"In the last year, we've added a lot of educational depth to our lessons, which have always been more authentic than anything else on the market," says co-founder and CEO John Hayden. "We're happy to be headed to Vancouver with a goal of making lessons that will really help people around the world feel more connected to the games through English, the global language."

The website's team will travel to Vancouver, interview spectators and athletes and ask them to participate in demonstrations of winter sport idioms. The lessons will begin to hit the website just after the opening ceremonies and continue throughout the games.

"In Beijing, we saw that the cultural exchange that goes on at the Olympics is not unlike the community on English, baby!" says Hayden. "With the 2010 games right here in the Pacific Northwest, we feel especially poised to bring our members into the Olympic global moment in a way they won't see anywhere else."