Language Learning and Saturday Night Live

In the system we’re using to learn language, you’re not allowed to speak for the first 3 weeks or so. All you do is listen—for the new and different sounds, for the rhythm of the language, for the differences between words. This is so that when you do start speaking your accent is much better than it would be if you tried to start talking immediately. It’s difficult because the people want you to repeat the Sunny words after them. And you want to repeat them also…it’s instinct. But I’m super intrigued by the system and having a really good accent. Once I do start talking (this week!) it’ll be a lot about mimicking what I’ve been hearing. Almost like trying to do a really good impersonation of a Sunny person. So…all that to say that I’ve been pretending that my dream of being an SNL cast member has come true and I’ve been spending the last 3 weeks preparing to do a new long-term character…like maybe a political persona. I think it’s helped.