Dear Readers,

Welcome to English Black Friday. This blog has been created in order for you to learn more about African-American culture, music, history, and mainly PRONUNCIATION and other LANGUAGE ASPECTS.
You are very welcome and so are your your friends. Help us spread out this beautiful culture that we are surrounded by when it comes to movies, series, music, and sports.

I’m Rodrigo Pelegrini Honorato, a professional teacher of English born and bred in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I have been a teacher of English since 2005. I have taught in different schools in Brazil and I had a chance to teach in Hong Kong as well.

There are hundreds of English institutes in Brazil, but I have never seen any where variants of  Englishes have been taught. The main focus is on either General American English or British Received Pronunciation. That is why I decided to write this blog to share such an amazing content with y’all.

I started learning English on March 10, 2003 and as you might expect, only GAE and BRP varieties were taught. However, I have always loved RAP and Hip-Hop. Back then, you would find me listening to 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Tupac, Eminem, and some other artists, but there was a problem: I could not understand any of them whatsoever.

In 2005, I started tutoring to pay for my English course. I would help newbies after class and school would pay for my studies. In 2006, I started studying Linguistics and Literature (Letras) at the Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-MG) where I got my degree in 2011. My academic life was interrupted twice – 2007 and 2008 – because I would go to the United States and it was my greatest dream that was about to come true, so I did not really care about putting a term or so off. That was a fork in the road and ‘I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.’

While in the U.S, I lived in Houston, Katy, Graford in Texas and in a predominately-black area called Alief where I got to know much more about African American Vernacular English. I worked at the Alief Family YMCA during summer 2007. I learned a lot throughout that summer and it led me to studying even more about African-American history, culture, music, and PRONUNCIATION.

I had a chance to visit Harlem – uptown Manhattan – 3 times and I have experienced many interesting things: people talking in the streets, shopping at street-stands, going to Apollo Theater on 125th street, watching a Harlem Choir at a church event and talking to people on the subways.  It was an enriching experience!

So, from then on, I have been dedicating to learning more and more about them and this website is where I can share with you all I have learned and experienced.

I used to teach English as a Foreign Language at UFMG the Federal University of Minas Gerais and at Achieve, an Oxford University Press school network in Brazil. As a Teacher Trainer at UFMG and Oxford University Press I have presented workshops, lectures, and conversations about Black English, teaching methodologies, Teaching Styles, Input and Output Hypothesis, Linguistic Systems, Affective Learning, and of course, PRONUNCIATION.

I am very thankful and happy for the opportunity I have had. Because of them, many people know about my work and passion: African American Vernacular English and PRONUNCIATION.

Now I am on Instagram @ebfacademy as well as YouTube: English Black Friday you are welcome to join my Telegram group: English Black Friday and also follow me on Twitter @engblackfriday

English Black Friday stands for:
“English” because this is the official language of the website,
“Black” because it is a celebration of Black Culture and Language 
“Friday” because it is when this beautiful project started. 

Make yourself at home,
Best regards,

Rodrigo P. Honorato