Mimicking People

Post Reply New Topic

Oh god, yes!

I noticed it a few months ago with my piano teacher... She's from Russia originally and thus has an accent and a very particular -Dutch grammatically wrong- way of forming sentences.
I automatically, subconsciously start mimicing her, without wanting too.
I SO hope she doesn't notice and think's I'm mocking her!! !

I'm pretty sure I do this with *everyone*: gauge intelligence, ticks, mannerism, dialect etc. and BAM; become a "perfect"(???) match (mirror image anway).
So far practice indicates almost everyone loves this "flattery is the ultimate compliment mode!

Absolutely. I noticed a long while back that I'd unconsciously mimic peoples' accents. And do a pretty good job of it apparently. At least until I noticed what I was doing, then had to awkwardly (and I suck at it, if I'm consciously trying to do it) try to maintain it during a conversation so they wouldn't think I was weird, switching accents in the middle of a sentence.

For instance, I've never lived outside of southern California but, after spending a weekend with my cousin from North Carolina, I had people asking me what part of the south I was from. Had a teacher, when I was a kid, who spoke with a thick Boston accent. She'd think I was making fun of her when I'd raise my hand and answer her questions in that same accent. Luckily, she thought it was funny.

Not just accents either. Gf's sister comes to visit and stay with us for a few weeks every so often. She's American, but has lived in Hungary with her English boyfriend for a few years, and so has developed very distinct speech patterns despite keeping her American accent. I noticed that within a couple hours of picking her up from the airport I was speaking in that same pattern.

It doesn't take very long for me at all to adapt others' ways of talking/moving/etc. It bothers me because I am worried that the other person might think I am doing it on purpose and become insulted or sometimes their way of speaking isn't one I'd WANT to imitate.

Yes, I always were like that.
after speaking with someone I "become" that person
I even think in their voice!

..or at least it used to be that way. last years I've been doing that less..dunno why. oh well. whatever.

I sometimes do this with movie actors

I mimic peoples speech patterns and vocabulary very quickly without realizing it. I do this with what I hear in movies and videogames and read in books as well. My mother used to wonder why I used old figures of speech and idioms all the time just like my father and I haven't seen him years and we're sure he has aspie traits.

Only recently have I begun to worry about my mimicking habit because I have no concept of who I am. Over the years I've relied on imitation/various masks to feel stable throughout the days. Yet I'm fearful that I haven't cultivated my own identity and have no clue how to do so!

Yep.

Oops. Now THAT is clever. I didn't realise this until I was about 40 (and even then didn't connect it with my suspected Aspergers.)

The advantage in my life has been that I've constantly remodeled myself and now that I'm old I can still appear like I'm in my early thirties. Because everything has been so much in flux, there hasn't been much that has stuck to me and aged me.

Now that I know a bit more about how I work, I enjoy life a lot more.

I can recommend turning 40.

Only random stuff like a song that has a highish voice randomly...and a few game related voices that say something simple....it really annoys me.

I recently talked to a fellow Aspie with my bosses pausing between words voice, and I hate it as I don't like the pause in the voice anyway but I did it anyway. lol

When I was little I was obsessed with St Clare's by Enid Blyton and there was one character I would 'be' when I was at school. This was not so ok when I threatened to hit someone in the playground because the character does it regularly in the book. It's hard to grasp that what is ok in a book isn't always ok in real life. I love books.

I've got three kids, they all do this, it's the way they learn. However I think most people grow out of it. It is supposed to be a feature of AS and autism in general, that we learn by mimicking others, especially speech, but don't always always understand it.

I find I very quickly start mimicking peoples accents and the way they walk, and I begin using their phrases and their gestures. In a lot of ways I still rely on mimicking people to help me blend in, but having observed the behaviour of NT's in social situations I think they do this also, whether consciously or not. I suppose this is how slang words and phrases become widespread. I think I'm just more aware of mimicking than other people because I'm always so focused on the way I'm behaving, the way I'm standing, my facial expression, my gestures. It comes naturally for them to pick these things up so they don't think about it or analyse it, but I do constantly.