I was listening to Canadian radio again, and there was a really interesting show about copying.
The whole show is about an hour long, but with several little segments. Just before 14 minutes a segment starts about people's tendency to start copying the way the person they're talking with talks. They give the example of Canadians taking on a British accent when talking with a Brit, but it could also be word choice and syntax. Around 17 minutes there's a sound clip of a professor explaining that people will copy the way of pronouncing a word even from just seeing a muted video of someone saying that word. There's a whole discussion about how copying your conversation partner's speech is a way to show you're engaged in the discussion and to be "close" to the person.
This got me thinking about ways that I speak English and French. My husband is often peeved that I reuse his catch phrases or jokes ("Arrête de piquer mes expressions!"), but I really do copy the French around me. While that is the way you learn a language, it's really exaggerated with my husband and myself. He has even started copying some of my incorrect French!
I've also realized that I will change the way I speak English depending on whom I'm speaking with. Since I spend a lot of time with foreigners, I can quickly go into the slow, no-idioms English. When I'm speaking with someone who wants to improve their English, I have to make a conscious effort to speak "normally" so they can be exposed to native English.
So what do you think of copying? Do you copy (excessively?) like me with languages? If you listen to the entire podcast, they cover other types of copying too. I'm definitely guilty of copying the style and make-up of French women I've seen! But as the intro text for the show says, copying might be necessary for our creativity.
5 comments:
I will pay attention, but I think the only French I copy is from Ben (which doesn't mean it's good French, lol). I do spend lots of time checking out people's clothes though, getting ideas. So I guess the copying does help creativity, it's just ideas that I reinterpret, it's not like I go out and get the exact same sweater.
I learned a lot of semi-vulgar expressions, or at least only-among-friends expressions, and my husband tries to deny teaching them when I use them incorrectly! I learned the hard way that saying someone was "fini au pipi" was not playful but more rude. Kind of like B learning English from Grand Theft Auto...
One of the guests on the podcast says that copying is just reinventing/reinterpreting because it's impossible to perfectly copy something anyway. In that sense, when you try to copy, you inevitably add your own touch. Kind of reassuring I think.
This podcast sounds very interesting. I definitely think it is somewhat true. I copy my husband's French, which is where I learned a lot of more vulgar and interesting expressions, but he also copies my (sometimes incorrect) French. I think it's pretty funny actually because from time to time we will be talking with his friends and they correct his french and ask him why he said an expression incorrectly or something bizarre and he finally admits that he got it from me...probably not the best idea! Sometimes I find out years later that something I have been saying is slightly wrong because he copies my expression so I think it is grammatically correct.
Thanks a lot. It will be months before I have another conversation with someone without noticing if we're copying each other.
Interesting. I find myself copying my husband's french accented english at times without even thinking about it, but only while talking to him. And when I'm with my english sister-in-law (I'm american) I pick up her accent very quickly.
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