I don't keep up with television much nowadays, and the only reason that I'm mentioning it now is because the one actor that I've been compared to more than any other's most prominent role is on that show.
I got these comments more often before I grew the beard, but now that I'm temporarily semi-famous, people feel the need to compare me with famous people, and it's started to crop back. Let's look at the two of us.
Me:
Jason Segel:
I don't see it.
In other news, I spoke to my counterpart over the phone today. Apparently, he's working out in the countryside, in a place without electricity. He was laughing, because he'd been a city-boy his entire life before CWY, and his first lengthy stint in the country was in Karadie. But as soon as he landed work after the program, they him back out to the country.
I voiced my concern for Mali and it's recent events, and to my surprise, he laughed! He was like "Oh, so you've heard about that, eh?" He assured me that Mali's just fine, and his family and homeland haven't been touched by the current events. He seemed to find my concern hilarious, actually. I don't really know what to make of that.
He also seemed to know that I'd sent photos back to our host family. He listed a number of Malians who'd called him and asked about how I was doing.
I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to speak French. I've been reading and writing in French enough, but when it comes to on-the-spot performance, there's a certain psychological aspect, being able to switch from "English-mode" to "French-mode". I managed it, though, and my counterpart complimented me on it. It was a bit rougher than in-person speak, too, because I couldn't use body language, and the connection was bad.
My Mom told me that I was speaking baby-French, and that she understood it all. My brother went so far as to say that I "spat on the French language." That it's supposed to be a sophisticated language, whereas I sounded excitable.
Your eyes look a lot like his, but aside from that ... without the beard, sure, you would probably get more comments. I think it's that people are really saying "the celebrity to whom you are most similar is" without actually saying it that way. Most of us don't really have celebrity doubles, so the best we get is a passing comparison. (On the other hand, if you Google "Marco Sturm" and look for a picture of him in uniform, you may find he looks remarkably like a brother of mine. Of course the uniform helps because it creates a similarity: was there ever an episode of HIMYM where Segel's character wore a full beard?)
ReplyDeleteI think it's understandable that your command of French might not be as good as you'd like. It isn't as though you've spent two decades practicing it ...