Yesterday…
While
driving home from my Spanish class…
I practiced
saying the new words from my lesson…
Still
struggling with pronunciations…
As Spanish
letters are said different than English.
‘A”
is pronounced like ‘E’…
‘E’
like ‘I’…
‘J’
is said like an ‘H’, etc.
As I
struggled with one new word…
Moving
my mouth and tongue…
To get
the pronunciation correct…
A
memory began surfacing…
Images
of another time…
Another
place…
When
I spoke Spanish.
A
past life regression?
Don’t
I wish.
It
was actually a memory…
Of a
past audition I can’t believe I did.
You
see, I am a voiceover talent…
With
over twenty-five voices in my repertoire.
One
day, many years ago, my agent called.
“Leigh
you speak Spanish, don’t you?”
“Uh,
no.”
“Did
you ever take lessons?”
“Yeah,
back in fourth grade.”
“Good
enough. Get a tape on Spanish and practice.”
“What?
Why?”
“There’s
an audition I want you to go to.”
“When?”
“In
two days.”
“But
I can’t pull this off.”
“You’ll
be fine. Oh, and this is a new client.
I
want to impress them with you.”
OK,
here is when my brain must have farted…
Because
I agreed, bought a tape, and practiced.
AUDITION
Director:
“Sla te you name.”
Me: “Leigh Caron.”
Director: “OK, Leigh you can begin anytime.”
Me: “Buenos Tardes—“
***laughter in the control room***
Director: “Stop! You don’t speak Spanish, do you?”
Me: “Uh, no, no I don’t.”
Director:
“Why did you come to the audition then?”
Me: “Well, um, you see, um—“
Director: “Nev Ob viously you’re not right…
for this script, but your agent gave me
your CD. I like your voice. And I have other
scripts you can audition for another day.”
Well,
I did get those other voiceover gigs
So
it all worked out in the end…
But
I can tell you this...
Humiliation in any language?
Feels the same.
So?
Ever
do anything so crazy? Or humiliating?
What
was it?
Always,
Em-Musing
12 comments:
Hey, at least you got a few other jobs out of the deal.
It took you years to learn your first language, so why should you be embarrassed that a few lessons in learning your second weren't enough?
I've been there, Leigh. I had a degree in Spanish when I first studied in Spain, and I was tongue-tied. It was only when I quit being embarrassed and concentrated on communicating with PEOPLE that I started making progress toward fluency.
Now, if we had both started learning as toddlers, we could have skipped the self-consciousness altogether. That's why our kids should be studying languages pre-K-12 and not starting in their teens when they are terrified to look stupid.
Okay, you got four cents instead of my normal two.
I think your agent knew exactly what he was doing...he got your voice in the door, so to speak.
in Japanese (the romanization anyway) E has a rather light A sound and I sounds like E. Kinda like Hawaii or Wii.
LOL! I slaughter the English language and wouldn't even try to say something in a foreign language.
I'm having a good LOL at your expense because I've been there done that except it was with a whole room of Spanish Speaking folks wanting to learn English.
So In my best TexMex...which is kind of a mix of Texan and Mexican...I said, "Bien Vendios, Ya'll. Me nombre es Sue. I am your pescado. Silence...then roaring laughter. I had just called myself a fish...pescado instead of a teacher...profesor.
Good you got a job anyway...I got to keep mine, as long as I spoke English.
Sue CollectInTexasGal~Today's Post~
Oh My Moon and Stars or An Intellectual Pursuit of a Politically Incorrect Pile of Poop
All the best! I'm trying to learn Japanese as well.
Nas
I tried to learn Japanese. After four years I could get around some, but with no one to talk to, I quickly lost it.
Your agent must have had some foresight to know that this was an in for other jobs. It worked!
Lee
A Faraway View
An A to Z Co-host blog
I wonder how many other people they had audition who didn't speak Spanish either :D
I once went to a job interview that I was extremely unqualified for. The interviewer asked me about my experience, and I basically said that I had none, I had no idea what he was talking about (when he listed what I needed to know for the job), but I was a damn quick learner. He said that was probably the first honest interview he'd gotten, and learning quickly is one of the most invaluable parts of a job, so I got the job.
Stopping by from the WIP it good Blogfest.
@JLenniDorner
Anyone who has never done something scary or humiliating has never lived. Sometimes you have to put it out there.
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