In which Our Hero finally speaks his native tongue
I did it! I clowned! Wahoo!!! !!!! !!!!
Here’s the sitch:
Our head teacher asks for five people who don’t speak Chinese. I step forward. She plays a Chinese song and we’re told to mime along. Then she turns down the music and says: keep going. Continue the song, in this language we do not speak.
I have been preparing for this my whole life.
I’ve always loved imitating sounds. Not faces, not gestures, sounds. The cadence of languages, sirens, shower water hitting my rubber duck. It’s always been a private delight.
Today I let it out. I imitated the music of a language I don’t know, and loved it. The audience loved it too.
It gets better.
On Friday I asked our teacher how to tell when something works. She said: you have to look at the audience and see.
I already knew that, but I needed to hear it from her.
So today I looked. I saw the joy light up their faces. One woman — the same who’d argued with me on Thursday — beamed with glee. My roommate was glowing, proud to see me not only succeed but to know I was succeeding.
And so I kept playing. Kept singing. Kept sharing that joy.
Good news: I have a skill people love.
Bad news: in America, this skill is considered offensive.
Five years ago at a rodeo in Wyoming, I was doing a southern accent for fun. My travel partner told me it was unacceptable. She thought I was mocking. Maybe she was right; maybe she wasn’t. Either way, I stopped.
Now, at last, I’ve found a place where the same instinct — my delight in sound and voices — brings laughter and connection instead of tension and fear.
Sometimes I wander around the house doing silly voices. Usually, people shut this down. But in clown, it’s beautiful.
Or maybe it’s always been beautiful, I just need the right place to perform.
🤡
[My travel buddy of the last two years would like to add this note about me: “I’ve also noticed when traveling that you [Julian] pick up the accent and speech pattern of folks you chat with. I often worry that folks will find it offensive, but, tbh, I think they don’t usually notice and seem to like it.”]
Julian Wise 