Day 3: April 14, 2017
Challenge: speak in a foreign accent for a day
This challenge seems rather silly at the outset, but that was the whole point. I love being silly. I love speaking with different accents and funny voices; I just don't do it in front of people. I've always been afraid of their judgment; so I keep my silliness to myself. This challenge wasn't about the accent, it was about embracing the silliness. I chose to do a British accent (standard/queen's English) for two reasons: it's easy and I was in a play where I was a British character. My students thought that my accent was "on fleek" (whatever that's supposed to mean), and a grocery store clerk actually asked me what part of England I was from. I know, even if they didn't, that my British accent was far from accurate, I constantly mixed pronunciations from different regions.
At the beginning of the day, I was super shy about the challenge, and tried to talk to as few people as possible. Then I realized that not talking to people would defeat the purpose of the challenge. I decided to push my bubbling anxiety down, and really get into character, as it were. I made up a character in my mind (I didn't tell it to anyone else) who was a teacher from England here in the states on an exchange program. I let myself be someone else for the day, and it was really fun. It was nice to not think about my life for a hot minute. I enjoyed coming back to myself at the end of the day and discovered that I was really grateful for what my life is. I learned from this challenge that it is OK to let people see my "wacky" side. It's fun to be silly. It's good to escape every once in a while so that I can better appreciate what I have and what I'm capable of.
Challenge: speak in a foreign accent for a day
This challenge seems rather silly at the outset, but that was the whole point. I love being silly. I love speaking with different accents and funny voices; I just don't do it in front of people. I've always been afraid of their judgment; so I keep my silliness to myself. This challenge wasn't about the accent, it was about embracing the silliness. I chose to do a British accent (standard/queen's English) for two reasons: it's easy and I was in a play where I was a British character. My students thought that my accent was "on fleek" (whatever that's supposed to mean), and a grocery store clerk actually asked me what part of England I was from. I know, even if they didn't, that my British accent was far from accurate, I constantly mixed pronunciations from different regions.
At the beginning of the day, I was super shy about the challenge, and tried to talk to as few people as possible. Then I realized that not talking to people would defeat the purpose of the challenge. I decided to push my bubbling anxiety down, and really get into character, as it were. I made up a character in my mind (I didn't tell it to anyone else) who was a teacher from England here in the states on an exchange program. I let myself be someone else for the day, and it was really fun. It was nice to not think about my life for a hot minute. I enjoyed coming back to myself at the end of the day and discovered that I was really grateful for what my life is. I learned from this challenge that it is OK to let people see my "wacky" side. It's fun to be silly. It's good to escape every once in a while so that I can better appreciate what I have and what I'm capable of.
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