I committed a public offence

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0722434418693.html

From my earliest memories to the present, Dad has always made us laugh. The ultimate sanguine, he knows everyone by name (I didn't realise back when I was a kid but I know now, name tags came in handy) and he would always, unintentionally, mimic an accent depending who he was talking to. If he was ordering takeaway Chinese he would speak at break neck speed: "Arhh won spesel flied lice, won mong lamb, won schizwan beef. Dus it." If it was a German client "Yar yar...Sank yo fery mahch vor zis pahyment. Vee vill tark soon", or to an old man " CAN YOU HEAR ME? DO YOU NEED HELP???"....spaniard: "Hola Maria"...etc etc
(can you imagine my concern when I married a man with an Aussie Dad and a Japanese mum. That first parent-to-parent was lip biting.)
I have been told a million times over that I am very much like my Dad, but the enormity of our likeness sank in a few weeks ago when I found myself empathising to affiliate. Firstly I called the check-out-chick at Aldi by her first name, (a huge no no in my books) a little too familiar, but off I went  with a "Thanks Margaret".....and on to Woolies. There my check-out-chick boy was a bit homey looking, ethnic with a cool swagger and a hairstyle not to be messed with. Chat chat chat we went and then I took the docket with a "thanks man". THANKS MAN. Who did I think I was? Denzel?? It gets worse, this week at the Post Office I had a conversation with the Chinese assistant in Mander-lish. I walked away horrified that I had committed such a social crime, but apparently it's called 'perception & psychophysics', did you know that? There have been a lot of studies done on it, I'd know, because I did some research on my condition when I got home.

Psychologist Professor Lawrence Rosenblum from the University of California says that "accent mimicry is part of the brain's in-built urge to 'empathise and affiliate with other people'.
My goodness, is he saying that this unintentional mimicry is a form of social glue?
But what if I sit next to an Indian-rapper on my next flight, what on earth would I say and do, this "inbuilt urge" is a scary probability Prof. What can I do to stop the urge?

Facebook even has a group set up to bemoan the fate of those who can't help taking on the accents of strangers. Would I already be on their blacklist?

Is anyone else guilty?

Vis lorve,
Liv xx