Do you change your voice based on who you're talking to? (See, if I'm writing that sentence thinking that my mom would read it, it would have been thus: "Do you change your voice based on the person to whom you're talking?") Do you change your vocabulary or even your accent? Obviously most of us talk differently to small children than we do to adults. Most of us also subconsciously edit our speech for more sensitive ears. For example, if you're talking to a nice ladylike woman, the phrases "screwed up" and "that sucks" are conspicuously absent in most cases, right? If you don't do such editing, do you edit other more explicit words?
I change my voice quite a bit when I'm talking to people of different ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities. In fact, my prejudices about a person probably evidence themselves somewhat by my voice, vocabulary, and accent when I address them. That's a bit embarrassing. But on the more amusing side, Cindy can almost always tell who the person is on the other end of the phone conversation with me. It's more pronounced with some people than others: I have a distinct voice I use when talking to my grandpa. There's another one for when I'm talking to my mom, and another for my dad. My sisters get a completely different voice.
Also, I have a theory that may be a bit spurious, but I think it has some basis in fact. I watched a DVD of myself teaching in a Sunday morning worship service here in El Dorado Springs, and I think I can tell with a fair degree of accuracy which group of people in the congregation I'm looking at at any one time by the change in my voice. If I'm looking at one of the old-timer Missourians, my southern Missouri drawl thickens and I draw a bit of my vocabulary from my dad's Tennessee roots. If I'm looking at youth group members, I do a lousy imitation of a surfer dude. If I look at Aaron Ash or Randy J. Bland, my vocabulary suddenly improves.
What's with that?
2 comments:
It's so weird that you would blog about this tonight...because tonight at VBS, when your dad was telling the Bible story (he is a GREAT story-teller by the way!) I noticed that he was using a definite southern drawl. He was acting out the Good Samaritan so I don't think he was trying to use an "authentic" accent...maybe he was just being casual and relating to the kids that way. Whatever the case, it worked! :)
Also, my dad is totally that way on the phone...we can usually tell who he's talking to just by the tone of his voice.
Excellent post. I had noticed the southern drawl on some Sunday mornings, but since Overland Park used to be one big cornfield, I let it go.
Have you ever had a job as some kind of operator? One time while working the phones in Denver, I accidentally responded to someone in a British accent to match their own and had to keep it going through the whole conversation.
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