When TV teaches English

I have expressed my annoyance before with the word "comfortable" and how on earth it should be pronounced in English. TV shows have proven to be quite the linguistic tool for me and I've enjoyed the linguistic challenges I get from watching TV. Last night NCIS answered my request. I watched episode 10x23, "Double Blind" and loved it. But what made me laugh was the fact that the word "uncomfortable" was said two times within a very short period of time. So I could finally here the way it is properly pronounced. Thank you to NCIS!

And life goes on in TV language land. NCIS:LA proved to be another linguistic tool. The country Montenegro was mention, although it was first called Monaco (they were referencing a James Bond film that takes place in Montenegro). I couldn't help but laugh when Kensi not only corrected it but asked Deeks to say where it was. He got it right, it is indeed in Europe, but it did sound like he wasn't completely sure and Kensi picked up on that. Sometimes you just gotta love the geography puns.

This interested me for several reasons. First of all, in my language we do not refer to the country by the name of Montenegro. We use the translated version of the name in my language. That sounds completely different from the title Montenegro so it took me a moment to connect the two. But I did and the reason why I know where Montenegro is, is because of Eurovision. I have been watching Eurovision snce I was little and that includes watching the countries giving out points every single year. Eurovision is such a tradition here that every Scandinavian knows the phrase "Country, 12 points" in both French and English.  And every year I've heard the phrase "Serbia and Montenegro" together. So that's why I know where it's located on the map. But this year Serbia and Montenegro are competing separately. 

The same goes for the country Belarus. Belarus is Russian for "white Russia". And in my language we refer to the country as "White Russia" not by the traditional title. So a few years back when I was looking at a map of Europe from an American geography atlas I got frustrated when I saw the name Belarus and I did not know what country it was. After some googling I discovered it was the country that I call "White Russia".

And another language reference I completely enjoyed was in episode 2x17 of NCIS. Ducky was explaining to origin of the phrase "red herring" and what it means. I thought his explanation was very interesting and it highlighted one of my favorite points of language, how much is behind each word and the history. I loved the explanation of that people used red herring to train dogs for fox hunting to smell and then they'd drag red herring over the tracks of a real fox to see whether the dogs would be fool and hence the phrase.
Then I realized I didn't know what the word herring actually meant. I always connected it a fowl of some sort but it turns out it's fish.

So for an English major, I still have a lot to learn. But I love it. Discovering and using language gives me great joy and I love learning new things and how the English language continues to surprise me. And watching TV does help. And I have discovered the reason why. I learned English mostly through the medium of reading so  I am very strong in that area. English on TV is more colloquial and that is not an area I am as strong in.