One of the reasons I maintain this blog is to chronicle how TV shows challenge my English skills and how it helps me improve my English. I have stated here a million times that I am fluent in English and it feels natural to me to use the language. However, English is my lingua franca - meaning I learned English in a country in which English is not the official language and I am a native speaker of a language that is completely different from English. So while I am comfortable with English, it still challenges me. But I am determined to learn as much about the language as possible. Therefore, English major
And on my quest in discovering all the secrets of the English language, TV has proved to be a resource of the best kind. It challenges my auditory skills, my writing skills (maintaining this blog f.ex.) and my knowledge of colloquial English which is a a weaker area for me but I am very strong in literature and written English. So I use it to my advantage as much as my can to learn more and more.
And the past days TV has taught me a lesson twice.
In Parks and Rec episode 4x11 'The comeback kid' Lesle tries to get a former basketball star to endorse her and designs the slogan for him 'Voting for Leslie is a slam dunk'. Now I know what slam means and I know what dunk means but I had never heard this idiom 'slam dunk' before and did not even know it was an idiom. Putting in contest I gathered it was some kind of weird basketball euphemism and that it meant that something was 'cool'/'great'/'a really good shot'.
So imagine my surprise when I was reading a book about humor in American English and I came across this idiom. I had learned an idiom from TV! I was quite happy to discover that.
In episode 3x10 'The Debt' of NCIS:LA, Deeks and Kensi have a conversation involving the word hashtag.
Deeks: Hashtag, I'm in love, l-o-v-e
Kensi: Hashtag, my partner is a loser
Now enter the clueless Nordic also known as yours truly. I had less than zero idea what the word hashtag meant when I first saw this scene. It bothered me for some time that I did not understand the joke properly (I have a mental list of jokes on NCIS:LA I still have not figured out). But I did not bother looking up the word hashtag. I was too lazy to do it and not to mention, I have zero experience in Twitter speak. And lo and behold, late last year I finally learned what the word means and what it signifies on Twitter. So a year after seeing the episode for the first time I finally figured out the joke.
So TV continues to teach lessons and I continue to be challenged and loving every second of it.
(The best thing was when they had Kensi rattle on about the difference between alligators and crocodiles. I had no idea there was a difference first of all and found it extremely interesting).
And on my quest in discovering all the secrets of the English language, TV has proved to be a resource of the best kind. It challenges my auditory skills, my writing skills (maintaining this blog f.ex.) and my knowledge of colloquial English which is a a weaker area for me but I am very strong in literature and written English. So I use it to my advantage as much as my can to learn more and more.
And the past days TV has taught me a lesson twice.
In Parks and Rec episode 4x11 'The comeback kid' Lesle tries to get a former basketball star to endorse her and designs the slogan for him 'Voting for Leslie is a slam dunk'. Now I know what slam means and I know what dunk means but I had never heard this idiom 'slam dunk' before and did not even know it was an idiom. Putting in contest I gathered it was some kind of weird basketball euphemism and that it meant that something was 'cool'/'great'/'a really good shot'.
So imagine my surprise when I was reading a book about humor in American English and I came across this idiom. I had learned an idiom from TV! I was quite happy to discover that.
In episode 3x10 'The Debt' of NCIS:LA, Deeks and Kensi have a conversation involving the word hashtag.
Deeks: Hashtag, I'm in love, l-o-v-e
Kensi: Hashtag, my partner is a loser
Now enter the clueless Nordic also known as yours truly. I had less than zero idea what the word hashtag meant when I first saw this scene. It bothered me for some time that I did not understand the joke properly (I have a mental list of jokes on NCIS:LA I still have not figured out). But I did not bother looking up the word hashtag. I was too lazy to do it and not to mention, I have zero experience in Twitter speak. And lo and behold, late last year I finally learned what the word means and what it signifies on Twitter. So a year after seeing the episode for the first time I finally figured out the joke.
So TV continues to teach lessons and I continue to be challenged and loving every second of it.
(The best thing was when they had Kensi rattle on about the difference between alligators and crocodiles. I had no idea there was a difference first of all and found it extremely interesting).
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