When I was a kid I had this voice I would use to make people laugh. I am not really certain how I learned it, it was like talking in the back of my throat with a bubble in it and really high pitched. I thought it was hilarious and so did my friends. My cousin, Chad, would try to imitate it. "C-o-o-o-ow w-it it." Yeah, not even close.
So, I would use the voice on command or just to get a laugh out of someone. It usually worked.
It drove my mother crazy. She would give me the threatening look every time I used it and she heard it. If I was within arm's reach, I got a smack to the back of the head. (Back in the day when you could smack your kid without the police showing up because people are way to sensitive nowadays. Please don't harass me about it. I am just stating what I think.)
"Do NOT use that voice!"
"Okay....sheesh."
So, anyway, I used to think my different voice was unique and funny. Well, guess what. Now I understand why my mom cuffed me upside the head. My son has acquired "the voice." (Go ahead Mom, I will wait while you sit there and grin and nod.)
I now understand EXACTLY how obnoxious and irritating that sound is. He uses a lot. Singing, saying people's name, doing movie quotes...the same exact stuff I used to do when I was his age.
I have not resorted to the cuffing bit, but I have barked at him a few times and guess what his response is...
"Okay....sheesh."
Wow.
I acquired the skills to imitate people's voices when I was a kid. Not the Rich Little type of imitation (that would have been COOL!) but the WAY they spoke. I was especially good at accents.
I mastered my British accent by the time I was 10, Australian followed closely after that, then Scottish and Irish. Okay. Got the British Isles (and penal colonies) and Irish down. So, I moved on to French and German and Spanish. I learned a Russian accent from watching Rocky IV in high school. I liked the accents from America. Georgia (what kinda coke y'all want?) and Massachusetts (I left the cah at the fahm), Maine (wicked hot outhere i'nt it?) and the Midwest (welcome to WisCONsin).
I love to listen to people speak. I am sort of a Professor Henry Higgins in the way I listen and imitate.
Now, I am not mocking people. By all means, NO! I am imitating their slang, their dialect and their drawl. I am absolutely intrigued by people.
It seems that my children have inherited that trait as well. My daughter mastered her British accent at the age of 5. How? By watching "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," of course. Her German is actually pretty good, too!
Now, I don't have a very good ear for languages. Lord, Senor Hota Hota, my high school Spanish teacher, would tell you that. I am pretty good at learning words or phrases of a lot of languages however.
"Donde esta casa de Pepe?" "Voulez vouz coushay (sp) avec moi?" (Thank you Patti LaBelle)
Not something that will be brought up in everyday conversation.
But, HEY! When I was in college theatre I used to help people with their accents. If their part required an accent. I reserved the pratfall teaching to my friend, Jeff. (Who did require hospitalization at one time. But I consider that a job well done.) Talk about a challenge. Some people just aren't that good of actors. Heck, some ACTORS aren't that good of actors...
So, now my kids and I will carry on an entire conversation in a British accent, or a French accent (my daughter's is pretty good, my son, not so much) just to mess with people or goof around.
I think it annoys my husband tho since he has no knack for playacting.
Should I expect a smack upside the head?
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