Have you ever seen or heard something for the first time that deeply resounded within your being? It’s as if you had a vague notion of something that ought to exist, and the moment you find out that it does, all you can think is:
Oh my God…yes…EXACTLY!
By the end of the five minute video, I was completely blown away. But it only took 15 seconds for me to know one thing for certain – Seu Jorge was going to be my Brazilian Spirit Guide.
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What Mimicry is Really About
What Language-Learning is Really About
- Altering our speech patterns means altering our identities
- Language-learning means altering our speech patterns
- Language learning means altering our identities
Now to be clear – I’m not saying that learning a second language will completely transform the fabric of your being, but it WILL change you.
Anyone who speaks more than one language fluently will agree that you feel slightly “different” when you’re speaking different languages.
If you’re monolingual yourself but have friends who are multi-lingual, watch them closely and see if you notice any differences in their mannerisms when they speak the other languages. I know personally that my body language is different for each language I speak.
The reason for this is because our personal identities are made up of fragments of other people’s identities, and as mentioned before, identity is largely transmitted linguistically.
Our parents, older siblings, most admired friends and favorite TV personalities all say and do things that we mimic without even realizing it. You can think of these little elements as Lego pieces. We take little Lego pieces from their speech and personality and then add them to our own sets.
Any single personality trait, expression or twang we have, we got from somebody else. It’s not the individual lego pieces that make us unique but rather the way we put them all together (sorry – I suck at analogies)
So the question you must ask yourself as an adult second language learner is this: whose Lego Set are you gonna poach from?
Getting into Character
But this is just a question of accepting and overcoming psychology Anyone can step out of their comfort zone if they just force themselves to, and the general consensus is that doing so can be a very liberating and rewarding experience.
I’m sure only 1% of you actually took this exercise seriously, but if you did, you probably enjoyed it. It’s fun to “act” and really step outside of your normal self, and that’s part of the appeal for learning a new language.
To be truly fluent, however, you have to be comfortable “getting into character” in front of other people all the time. That’s why it’s important that you find your foreign language spirit guide.
Aaron van Zoeren says
This is a really interesting idea, but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the awesome post. I’m currently learning French, and really just starting to scratch the surface. I’m wondering, how would you generally approach finding this character? What’s worked best for you? Did you just stumble upon someone one day?
I want to try and be intentional about the avenues I take to pick up learning the language, and listening to things French people listen to is naturally one of the main things I’ll be doing. In this regard though, what would be the best way to expose myself to these characters I may want to mimic more exclusively (i.e. Movies, Television, Radio, Music, etc.)?
Idahosa says
Yes, you’re totally right. The easiest way in my opinion to find people like that is to look at pop culture in that language (movies, music, commercials). By exposing yourself to these things (specifically in genres that you enjoy), then you’ll be more likely to find this character.