The whole language debate - Can Americans really speak other languages than English?

IMPORTANT - PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS POST TOO SERIOUSLY! 

There is   one very persistent stereotypical image of Americans here in fair Europe. It is that the general American can only speaks English, has no interest in learning other languages and expects everyone else to speak English as well. And if an American does try to speak another language it always sounds dreadful. 

This is a very common stereotype of Americans here in Europe and frankly, we expect Americans to be 100% monolingual and freak out when confronted with another language. So when they travel abroad and realize that not everything is in English around them and that they actually have to get use to hearing another language, they promptly get terrified.

So when we come across Americans that seem completely comfortable with communicating in other languages than English, find it fun to explore a foreign language and even more, speak a foreign language confidently, without too much accent and have competent knowledge of it. We freak out. Our jaws drop, we stare at them and wonder if it´s true. It completely challenges all our notions and stereotypes of the general American.

And I am guilty of this too. In fact, I believe many, if not most, Europeans are.

To prove my case - I was recently listening to a video clip with various actors speaking foreign languages to brush up on my language knowledge (and entertain myself while I was cleaning) and I suddenly heard perfect French spoken. I checked to see who it was and my jaw promptly dropped when I saw it was Bradley Cooper communicating comfortably in 100% correct French. It was great to listen to and the woman interviewing him was also surprised. This was something I didn´t expect

Another person that has completely surprised was hearing Natalie Portman speaking fluent Hebrew. Hebrew is wonderful language but is uses a lot of sounds that are unusual. As a language, it sound completely unlike other languages. So to hear an English speaker comfortable using it (she is in fact bilingual) was pretty neat.

I enjoy having thia stereotype challenged and am always happy to discover the fact that yes, Americans an really speak another languages :) Not just a word here and there either fluently or on a very high level. I am a very big believer in the importance of maintaining linguistical variety and that peope should be not only invested in earning other languages but also having a strong connection their own native one. Knowing, even if only a little, of another language is a gift in itself. And it´s a gift that matters.

So yes, I will keep on secretly giggling when I hear American actors trying to pronounce European languages but I´ll also continue being surprised when it turns out to be more than that.

And for the record, it´s not like my own pronunciation of English is 100%. The other day I had to practise the word "comfortably" over and over again :)

You cast a minority - you go scott free

One of the things I have noticed about American television shows is that each and everyone of them has exactly, at least one actor of another race than Caucasian. Now that´s a pretty obvious thins, seeing that America is a country with every possible ethnicity and race in the world. And naturally media should reflect that.

But the thing is, that it seems it´s enough for producers to cast only 1 (maybe 2) actors that are of other races than white. If they do so, they are obviously not racist and therefore are hardly (if ever) criticized for the way they handle racial matters. So they go scott-free. However, dare cast a series that has only white actors and you open up a can of worms and suddenly, everyone is allowed to criticize you all the time.

Case in point - Lena Dunham. In her series Girls, there are only white actresses. I have never seen the show (and will not, seeing I am too hooked on police dramas). I am however aware of the controversy and criticizm concerning her casting choices. I am not defending Lena Dunham´s choice of having white actresses only. I strongly favour multi-national/multi-racial media and TV shows should reflect the diversity in the society around us. So yeah, Dunham would have made a wise choice by casting an actress of another race but she didn´t. And that´s her choice.

However, just because she didn´t cast a character of racial minority does not make her a bad person. And it does not give the rest of us permission to slander her in media or criticize her every move. Because, we have no idea of knowing her own opinions or thoughts/ideas on race and racial matters. I am not saying her choice was wise but I despise the fact that this choice of hers suddenly makes people feel like they can talk down everything she does.

I never see the producers of my favourite TV shows (that all have actors of multiple races) being slandered or criticized in media for their choice in how they deal with racial/international ideas. No matter how they treat them (which is 99% of the time very well) they are never criticized. Dunham doesn´t do anything and still she is slandered. And the one case where she doesn´t comment, people automatically assume she is a racist and happily begin ripping her to shreds.

Jezebel - Lena Dunham

The photo was not her fault and she had no idea that the terrible n-word would be used. Yet people start picking a fight with her on twitter (so adult) and when she doesn´t reply people happily assume all sorts of racist and bad ideas about her. Only because she didn´t comment. And to her credit, when she replies, she does it very eloquently.

This frustrates me. People are happy to pick on a person because of her casting choices for her show but no one ever criticizes those producers whose show has at least one person of another race. Never mind the fact that in most TV shows, racial minorities are vastly unrepresented and often harmful stereotypes are used. Casting a character of racial minority doesn´t mean people automatically treat racial matters sensitively and with respects. It doesn´t make them innocent. Just like, not casting a person of racial minority, doesn´t necessarily mean that a person is racist and that everything said person does can be interpreted as predjudice and racism. 

Racism pops up anywhere, irrespective of casting choices. 

So can people just lay off Dunham and actually start concentrating on the racial things that really matter. Dunham is not perfect but neither does she deserve the treatment she gets.

I am 100% Caucasian. My family, my ancestors, all my friends are Caucasian. I live in a country which was, until the 1980´s predominantly Caucasian. That does NOT make me a racist. My thoughts and opinions are influenced my race but they are also my own, irrespective of my race.

Shades - how brown/white are you exactly?

One of the things I have become a lot more educated about this past year is racial issues, particularly in media. It´s quite a complicated and sensitive thing but, it´s also one of the most interesting things I have ever researched and educated myself about. I am a big believer in doing research and forming one´s own opinions of things and investigating things has not only given me a lot to think about but also encouraged me to view things differently.

My own race is Caucasian. I am an ethnic Scandinavian, and as far as I know, I only have white people as ancestors. If you find that strange, allow me to explain. As far back as I know my ancestors all came from extremely isolated areas of Scandinavia and in all cases their family had been there for decades. You don´t exactly get much racial mixing in such circumstances. So my own skin color resembles that of a Vampire and I am never ever underrepresented in media. So when I look at racial matters in media I look at them as a white Scandinavian. And I find each and everyday that my views are challenged and I need to rethink things.

One of the things that has been on my mind lately is the frustrating difficulty of defining people by skin color. I honestly use the simple method of white, black and brown to refer to skin colors. It doesn´t matter one bit to me how dark/light people are although I of course notice it. So I feel my head spinning when I see people judging others on the exact shade of their skintone.

Recently I read articles in which people were complaining that Obama wasn´t outspoken enough about the white side of his family. It´s common knowledge that Obama is mixed race and in 2008 when he was running for president he was outspoken about his past and background and had nothing but good things to say about his mother´s side of the family (I read his biography!). After he became president, his focus obviously shifted to the difficult task of running the country. And now, 5 years later, people are apparently mad that he´s "too much concerned with his African-American" heritage. I mean, for crying out loud. The man is African-American and has a beautiful African-American family. It´s obvious to anyone that racism is still rampant in USA and that there is still a long way to go for black and white people to be equal. So naturally, the first black president, will be outspoken about his race and racial matters. It´s because it´s needed. We can´t tackle the problem unless it´s talked about and acknowledged. And that is what Obama is doing.

And then I found this article (I adore the blog by the way) Balancing Jane - Racism is alive and well. Apparently, people were angry because the actress that was cast to play Rue in the Hunger Games film was black! I mean talking about outrage, seriously. The character is described as having a dark skin tone (not a vampire one like mine) so the choice seems obvious. Yet people find the time to tweet and moan about the fact that they are angry because a)the actress is African-american or b)her skin tone isn´t dark enough.

Here you have a beautiful, incredibly talented actress (I loved her in the movie) that happens to be mixed-race. In fact the actress is half American, half-Danish (Scandinavia for the win!). But apparently people see a great deal wrong with her skin tone. They judge her, point-blank, based on nothing but the color of her skin. And there is no middle ground, it´s either too light or too dark. And I am outraged that people allow themselves to say such things about a minor.

Things like this make me want to hit my head against a wall.

Because, racism is rampant when we judge people based on nothing but their skin tone. And this happens in the media where everyone can see. What a wonderful message to send to people:"You are nothing but your skin tone and we will judge you according to that, not the character of your heart".

NCIS:Los Angeles - Nell Jones

One of the things I enjoy about my favourite TV shows is the fact that they all portray strong female characters that are no "damozels in distress" but are still refreshingly real. I have already written about Kensi Blye, Ziva David, Kate Beckett, JJ and Alex Blake but I´ve not written about Nell Jones.

Nell Jones is an intelligence analyst on NCIS:Los Angeles and one half of the kissing fish duo in the operation center. She is portrayed as being incredibly smart, witty, organized but also having some quiet strength. And one of the more pleasantly surprising aspects about her is the fact that she regularly stands up to and challenges people. But she´s also seen being very human. She admits she has personal issues she is aware of and working on (pretty much one of her best scenes), is seen as being emotional and affected by things and not immune to the job she has and it´s effects.

Nell would fall into the same category as Abby on NCIS and Garcia on Criminal Minds as the resident smarty-pants/weirdo on the job. Except, unlike Abby and Garcia, Nell is not portrayed as being the "resident weirdo". She is in fact portrayed as a very normal character. I absolutely love Abby and Garcia but it is also good to see a change from them. Abby and Garcia functions so well on their uniqueness and Nell provides a good balance to that.Of course she is supposed to be ridiculously smart but at the same time she is not seen as a caricature of the typical nerd/geek girl stereotype. And that is an aspect of her character that is really refreshing.


So often on TV, smart girls are portrayed as being extremely weird (not just quirky but behave weirdly), always having big glasses and dressing in extravagant clothing that could only belong in a circus. And of course they quote comic books all the time and listen to weird Japanese music.This is generalization but it´s fact. It´s impossible for TV to portray smart girls as actually being pretty normal. Not that they don´t have their own quirks (everyone does) but that generally speaking they are mainstream characters.

So seeing Nell on NCIS:Los Angeles as someone that is incredibly smart but at the same time, just a normal girl is a good change and something I highly enjoy about the character. It´s good to have normalcy to balance things out and portraying smart women in more ways than the geeky weirdo. And that is what the character of Nell does.

And of course the actress is incredibly good!

NCIS;Los Angeles spin off

Recently there has been a lot of casting news for the spinoff. So far they´ve cast the characters

Dave - Scott Grimes

Roy Quaid - John Corbett

Kai Ashe - Edwin Hodge

Clara - Gillian Alexy

Paris - Kim Raver

I have already expressed my own sincere annoyance/disgust with the way the characters were described in this post NCIS:LA spinoff - oh dear and I stand by what I wrote about my own thoughts on the description of the characters. I always feel like tearing out my hair when I read descriptions of the "sexy, tough female agent" or any description of a female TV character that includes more adjectives on beauty than anything else. Because of course, it´s impossible for a woman to do her job without being sexy and always gorgeous looking. Because gosh, women looking normal is like so last century!

In this world we live in today where the emphasis is nothing but beauty and looking sexy for women and girls are constantly bombarded with the message that they must be sexy in order to be valuable, things like this don´t help the cause of trying to counteract this thinking and instead emphasizing women´s worth is so much more than their beauty, it´s also their brain and character. It´s something I feel very strongly about and it´s a matter that needs to be discussed.

I have been  following the casting news with mild interest and I am honestly liking the actors they´ve cast.. The series will premier as a part of a two parter on NCIS:Los Angeles. And I will watch that two-parter as I am curious to see how this will turn out. I will not watch the series if it´s picked up but I might need to eat up my own words. Most of the characters are older than I imagined them so I am getting more curious how this will turn out.

So often, the description is only the veil and what it becomes turns out to be so different. After all, it´s in the end the actors that bring the characters to life. And what turns out can be surprising. As I´ve said earlier, I am enjoying the male actors they´ve cast and this could turn out to be good. And considering how well NCIS:Los Angeles turned out, this could be good.

So I will watch the two-parter, crossing my finger´s it won´t make me throw up.

And Miguel Ferrer will become a regular on NCIS:Los Angeles. That´s great news in my opinion :)

Butchering accents and the English language on TV

To begin this post I´d like to state that I am a full blown Scandinavian and I have a Scandinavian minority language as my native tongue. I am a completely fluent speaker of English and am pursuing a B.A. degree in the subject. But, despite my excellent English talents, because it is my Lingua Franca, I speak it with an accent. I do NOT speak with the accent of my native language.
As much as I love and am deeply attached to my native language it comes with the most terrible accent possible when speaking English. And since I have the advantage of having learned English when I was little and have always been heavily exposed to the language, I managed to escape the terrible accent of my native country. Instead I speak English with an American accent with a dash of British (unfortunate side effect of first learning English while living in the USA and later studying British English in school).
And since I am a lingophile I am always curious to listen to various accents of English on TV and how English is interpreted and spoken. And of course  I love laughing when I hear actors try to pull off various accents.

On Castle the characters don´t have accents very often. However Stana Katic got to display her knack for various accents when she pulled a Russian accent in 2x01. And in that episode all the Russian characters had a convincing accent.

And in episode 3x15 we get this gloriously funny example.

NCIS has not displayed the accent card very often but they have a knack for having Ziva messing up cultural references and American idioms regularly. As an EFL speaker I appreciate the fact that they show that Ziva does not have a complete grasp of the finer points of the language and her mistakes are always funny. Not to mention I have actually learned quite a lot of idioms when they correct her.

NCIS:Los Angeles without pulls the biggest accent card. Because of their regular undercover stings they frequently have the characters speak with an accent. Unfortunately it´s really hard to find examples on youtube so my words will have to do and the long winded video beneath.
Deeks has spoken with the worst British accent possible or as he described it "a cross between Jack Sparrow and Mary Poppins". It did make me laugh a lot!
In the same episode Kensi spoke with a Brazilian accent which was completely new to me but did sound good.

I always enjoy examples of the many ways the English language is spoken and interpreted on TV.

Another example which makes me laugh every time I see it is seeing Gloria Pritchett and her wonderful pronunciation mistakes on Modern Family. And her pronunciation mistakes are actually very believable and no doubt common. And her line of::"Fine, you try speaking another languge!" rings very true ;)

NCIS - Shabbat Shalom = Good TV.

I just spent my morning on watching NCIS episode Shabbat Shalom and what an incredible episode it was. Cote de Pablo´s performance was nothing short of amazing. The storyline, the character interactions, the nail biting tension - it was all spot on and kept me engaged the entire time. I was reminded yet again why I enjoy NCIS so much. Everything about the episode was so well don and interesting. I am going to highlight a few of my favourite things

1-For those observant, they dug up some old clothes from the episode "Under Covers" and reminiscended about it. What a treat for fans. Tony also referenced his singing performance in season 4. It was great to see memories of old cases

2- Ziva´s interaction with her father. There was such a great mix of love, confusion and distrust on her part. Her conflicted feelings were evident and their encounters felt realistic. And the dinner scene and Vance´s house was great. But Eli is quite the douchebag of a character

3-Abby´s undercover glasses. And she was right, they were freaky but cool.

4- Jackie Vance. I´ve always enjoyed the character and to see her performance in this episode was great. It hightlighted well the trouble of having a husband with an occupation like Vance.

5- What effect all these events will have upon the next episodes. This will bring a much needed change of direction for NCIS and I am lookin forward to it.

6- Ziva´s grief when she saw her father. It was raw and emotional. And I loved the touch of her speaking Hebrew to her father. So often, when someone dies on TV, people tend to grief in really "pretty ways" with only a touch of tears. But this was a scene of real grief - there was nothing pretty about it but it was intense and realistic.

7- All NCIS are solid and good (I´ve never seen a bad NCIS episode) but when they deliver they blow one´s sock off. And Shabbat Shalom was an incredible episode from beginning to end.

Political commentary on NCIS:Los Angeles

I was recently watching the episode "Special Delivery" (2x04) of NCIS:Los Angeles which handles the selling and distribution of Iraqi cultural monuments that were stolen when the Iraqi National Museum was ransacked in the early days of the invasion.

I still remember incredibly well the day that the Iraqi invasion started. It seemed so strange that something like this was happening. But then again, the whole world changed 11/9 so it came as no surprise. It was surreal to know that in Iraq the USA army was attacking the country because of Osama Bin Laden and claims that they had weapons of mass destruction. At the time my nation supported the Iraqi war. Now, 10 years later, no one here supports it, we´re all completely against it.

I remember having learned in history in elementary school that the area in the Middle East where Iraq is located is one the oldest areas where civilization has thrived and that they had in their museums some of the best preserved and incredible pieces of old history. I have always been a history buff and this really fascinated me.

So it struck me when the news came that the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad had been left unattended and the staff members had fled in order to ensure their safety. And the US army did nothing to secure the museum so the second there was no staff member there people ran in and stole and ransacked valuable historical items. Some of the most important historical relics in the world where stolen in those days and no one knows what happened to them. It´s in my opinion a historical travesty. It´s sad that these incredible things are now lost forever. And the US army has a part fault in that.

So when I was watching the episode they were discussing the Iraqi invasion and how valuable items had been stolen from the museum, Callen said (paraphrased):"While the US army did not bomb the building, they failed to secure it adequately. Not our finest hour".

And at that moment my jaw dropped. Was I really hearing not only a political commentary but also, in a way, an acknowledgement of one thing that went badly during the invasion. And indeed it was.
That gave me a great deal of thought and the beginning days of the Iraqi invasion came back to my mind and what I thought of it at the time and what has changed. And this is perhaps one of the ways TV can surprisingly cause us to think about things and how we interpret history.