TAUGHT BY TV
Knicks’ Kanter credits ‘SpongeBob SquarePants,’ ‘Jersey Shore’ for boosting his English skills
Gym, Tan, Krabby Patty Burgers.
Enes Kanter, who is making the media rounds and then circling back twice this summer, said he learned English by watching television, and two programs, in particular — “Jersey Shore” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
“Spongebob is my favorite,” the Knicks center said in an interview with CBS. “That cartoon was actually where I got my English most. In college, I couldn’t play; I was just sitting down and watching two shows: ‘SpongeBob’ and ‘Jersey Shore.’ Because you have to learn the street language, not the normal language.”
SpongeBob, for the uninitiated, is an optimistic yellow sponge who lives in the ocean and works as a fry cook at a fastfood restaurant. “Jersey Shore” features several fistpumping young ItalianAmericans obsessed with their appearance. Their contributions to the English language include “GTL,” which means Gym, Tan, Laundry, and “Twinning,” which means scoring with twins, and “Smush,” which means intercourse.
Kanter was born in Switzerland and raised in Turkey. His English is better than fluent but, interestingly, he blamed the language barrier after getting in trouble with the Knicks and NBA last season.
While sidelined with back spasms, Kanter said he told a teammate “to go out there and fight somebody” to spark the club.
“The front office told me I cannot say stuff like that,” Kanter explained afterward. “It’s a learning process. This is my second language. When I say fight, it means compete, play hard, compete. You get a tech; you get a tech. They told me I cannot say stuff like that. I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry, NBA, my fault.”
At least he didn’t say, “Go smush somebody.”
Kanter, 26, moved to the U.S. after committing to play at Kentucky, but he was ruled ineligible and never played in college.
Kanter cannot return to Turkey because he’d be arrested on charges of terrorism, a result of his outspoken criticism of the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the meantime, he’s getting maximum exposure in the U.S., interviewing and appearing on multiple media outlets while preparing for his second seaso n New York. He made headlines earlier by claiming Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler are interested in signing with the Knicks.
“Yes,” he said on FS1. “And the Knicks have a really, really high chance to get them next offseason. I believe that and I promise I think they will.”
Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, then tweeted that Kanter has no inside information.
Kanter was traded to the Knicks about a year ago for Carmelo Anthony and recently opted into his contract for next season at $18.6 million, making him the team’s highest-paid player.
He’s also the most outspoken on the Knicks, with a vocabulary that has thankfully developed a lot further than SpongeBob and The Situation.