A new Muppet character created by The Jim Henson Company heads the cast. Tingo, a young purple, green and orange monster loosely resembling a tiger, has a huge appetite for food, sports and adventure. Musical by nature, he sings and dances -- he's partial to the tango -- and he's multi-lingual! An exchange student visiting the U.S., Tingo speaks every language under the sun, including yours! Tingo has many other talents. He can cook, paint, hit a homerun or make a jumpshot?i>and he plants a perfectly beautiful garden!
Tingo's sidekick and best friend is Niki -- a typical American teenager who lives in the basement of her parents' home. Niki's smart, savvy and sophisticated one moment, wide-eyed and curious the next. She loves sports, scary movies and books, but music is her passion. In fact, Niki is the lead singer in her own rock band! She introduces Tingo and the audience to English language and American culture. Children are helped along by Tingo, who shares key concepts and themes in their first language when he speaks directly to camera.
Joining this dynamic duo is a wacky cast of characters who visit the show on a recurring basis. Each of these characters adds to the comedic situations that Niki and Tingo find themselves in every day.
Each Sesame English episode follows a comic story line, yet has the pacing of an upbeat magazine format, featuring the best of Sesame Street's Muppets, animation and live action inserts. There are also newly produced live action segments that illustrate communicative English as Americans actually use it.
The Sesame English curriculum was designed to introduce conversational English to non-English speaking children. Across its seven thematic topics, the series presents and then reviews English expressions, vocabulary, structures and action-responses, as well as all of the letters of the alphabet and the numbers from one to twenty. Sesame English introduces children to the English language in a way that is fun and engaging, so that they will want to continue to learn.
Tingo, Niki and their friends will make speaking English an exciting musical adventure every day!
