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Episode: AEE 2314: Mock Versus Mimic - What's the Difference?

Author: Lindsay McMahon and Michelle Kaplan
Duration: 00:23:23

Episode Shownotes

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Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2314. Mock vs. Mimic. What's the difference?

00:00:10 Speaker_01
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.

00:00:27 Speaker_01
With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl. coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.

00:00:41 Speaker_01
And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe. When it comes to pretending to be like someone or doing an impression of someone, there are a few different words that you can use.

00:00:59 Speaker_01
Listen in today to get the tips on these words. Plus find out about one of our favorite TV shows. Hey there, Michelle. How's it going today?

00:01:10 Speaker_00
Good, Lindsay. Lindsay, can you do any impressions of people, maybe a celebrity or anything like that?

00:01:18 Speaker_01
Not very well. I usually have to hear their voice immediately and they have to have a very distinctive voice or accent. I'm good at mimicking accents right after I hear them, but I'm not very good at, you know, just out of the blue doing someone.

00:01:31 Speaker_01
Do you know what I mean? Without calling it up and hearing and listening to it. So that's my quirk. What about you, Michelle? I would imagine you're pretty good at it.

00:01:39 Speaker_00
Well, I used to do this game with my brother when I was younger, maybe 10 or in my teenage years, and he would play the piano and I would sing and he would call out a celebrity, a singer, and we'd be doing the same song and I would always switch and try and do impressions of that singer singing the same song.

00:02:00 Speaker_00
So we use it. I don't know if I'm good at it. My brother thought I was, but I don't know. But I haven't really done that in a long time. But today we're actually going to talk about the differences between the words mock and mimic.

00:02:14 Speaker_00
So, Lindsay, you mentioned the word mimic. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So this is this is going to be a good one. I'm excited for this episode. But before we get into that, we have some reviewers that we really want to thank.

00:02:26 Speaker_01
Yeah, guys, reviews are huge for us. It is so important for us to know what you think about the show. So go and leave a review anywhere you listen. Also in the app, the Android or iOS is also a great place to leave a review as well as the podcast.

00:02:40 Speaker_01
I want to call out two reviewers. We have a five star review. The name is anonymous, so the person didn't want to leave their name, but they reviewed us on November 3rd. So special thank you to that person.

00:02:52 Speaker_01
And Jian Zhang also left a five-star review on November 1st. So that is amazing, Michelle. And guys, we will call your name aloud on the show if you leave a review. So go ahead and leave that review. Yeah, Michelle?

00:03:06 Speaker_00
Yes, absolutely. Please do. We love hearing from you. Thank you so much.

00:03:10 Speaker_01
Yeah. All right. So where do we go here with mock and mimic? It sounds like they could be the same thing, but they're really not. Right, Michelle?

00:03:20 Speaker_00
Yeah, no, they're not. Well, so let's get into it. So they are, we're going to be talking about both of them as verbs today. So we have mock. To me, when you hear mock, it's a little bit more potentially mean spirited. more about teasing someone.

00:03:39 Speaker_00
So maybe, again, they're similar in the way that it's both kind of copying or trying to impersonate in some way. So in that way, they're similar. But to me, mock sounds a little bit more mean-spirited.

00:03:52 Speaker_00
So, for example, if you said, Sarah hated it when people mocked her voice.

00:03:57 Speaker_01
Yeah, essentially, it really means teasing. It's a way of teasing someone, right? But it's a special... It doesn't mean teasing. It's a kind of teasing, is what I mean by that.

00:04:07 Speaker_00
Right, exactly. And it doesn't have to be that they're doing an impression of her voice, but likely they're kind of doing some sort of impression. But it could just be, oh, they mocked it, they talked about it, they made fun of it.

00:04:21 Speaker_00
So it has that use as well.

00:04:24 Speaker_01
Oh, that's really, this is kind of high level, actually, when you think about it, because people do use mocking in a way when someone says, Are you mocking me? Right?

00:04:32 Speaker_01
When you're maybe using sarcasm to respond to what someone said, it's not just let me do an impression of you in a way that's teasing or degrading to you. It's not just that simple. It's not that simple. Right. Right.

00:04:46 Speaker_00
Do you remember? And you've seen My Cousin Vinny, right? Yeah, I love that movie. Do you remember when he like comes in that in the ridiculous suit? Do you remember that scene? And the judge says, Are you mocking me? I have to watch that movie again.

00:05:01 Speaker_01
Yeah.

00:05:01 Speaker_00
Oh, it's it's so funny.

00:05:04 Speaker_01
This might be the right time for a good funny movie.

00:05:07 Speaker_00
I could watch that now. But yeah, basically this just to give a little bit of background. So because I think it's helpful. So this judge.

00:05:17 Speaker_00
So this guy, Vinnie, he's coming in to be a lawyer, but he has kind of this wild personality and he's not a very good lawyer. He doesn't really know much, but so he's trying.

00:05:27 Speaker_00
And so the judge keeps on getting him in trouble because he's wearing inappropriate clothes. to be a lawyer in the courtroom. So then he tries to get a suit, but his suit gets covered in mud somehow and he can't find a new suit.

00:05:42 Speaker_00
So he just finds this like red tuxedo and it's very over the top. And he goes into the courtroom and the judge looks at him and he says, are you mocking me? And perfect. Yeah. So that's an example of he wasn't actually saying anything.

00:05:58 Speaker_00
He wasn't doing an impression of him, but it was that he was doing something in this sarcastic way to tease him, even though he actually wasn't trying to.

00:06:06 Speaker_01
Yeah, that's a great example. So mocking actually is quite a high level term. How to know when to use it when it goes beyond just the actions that someone is taking.

00:06:16 Speaker_01
So that is definitely for the advanced level here as our listeners move up into that C1 level. Alright, should we flip over then to mimic? Michelle, let's do it.

00:06:27 Speaker_00
How is this different? Right. So mimic is really imitating someone. I suppose you could wear clothes to mimic someone.

00:06:34 Speaker_00
But to me, when I hear mimic, I think more of actually doing an impression and that it's not necessarily it doesn't mean that it's mean spirited. Right. Whereas mock is definitely mean spirited.

00:06:49 Speaker_01
Yes, completely. So, for example, here's a couple sample sentences for our listeners, guys. Her daughter mimicked her every... Sorry, let me start again. Her daughter mimicked her every move.

00:06:59 Speaker_01
Now, this is interesting because this doesn't mean her daughter is verbally mimicking her. It means she's physically doing the same thing, but it's not about what she's saying. It's about what she's doing. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, right.

00:07:14 Speaker_01
Yeah, a lot of times kids will mimic their parents in their actions or in their words.

00:07:21 Speaker_00
Yes, I definitely sometimes you don't realize it until you hear your kids say something and then you're like, oh, that's That's from me. That's me. Oh, my God.

00:07:30 Speaker_01
The funniest thing. So my nephew, my partner's nephew, my nephew, we were camping this summer. Okay. This is a two, like a three-year-old child. Okay. So we're camping. He's got a little bit of an attitude. He's his own person. Wait, sorry. How old again?

00:07:48 Speaker_01
He's like three years old. He's young.

00:07:50 Speaker_00
Young, young, young, young.

00:07:51 Speaker_01
He doesn't have vocabulary yet. Very good vocabulary yet.

00:07:55 Speaker_01
And we're throwing around the ball and all of a sudden he gets upset and he stands there and we're all outside by our tents and he stands there, crosses his arms and he goes, when did this come up? Right? So clearly he doesn't know what he's saying.

00:08:12 Speaker_01
What does that mean when someone says, when did this come up? When did this come up?

00:08:17 Speaker_00
of like, you're asking for, I don't even know, like the story about something?

00:08:22 Speaker_01
He's basically, he's mimicking his mom. He's taking it totally out of context. He doesn't know. Usually when someone says, when did this come up? It's like, when did someone talk about this? When did this topic arise in the conversation? Right.

00:08:35 Speaker_01
But we're just throwing around a ball and he's getting upset. He only knows that his mom said that And maybe she was upset at some point or something. So he brought it totally out of context, but he's mimicking his mom or his dad.

00:08:48 Speaker_01
And it was so funny because it just made no sense for the scenario that we were in.

00:08:56 Speaker_00
I love it. Those are the funniest things. Well, the scary thing is if they ever curse. And yeah, oh, sure.

00:09:02 Speaker_01
That's the worst kind of mimicking.

00:09:04 Speaker_00
Yeah, yeah, that's definitely happened to me with because my husband, Dan tends to if somebody falls, he he's very bad about not cursing. And so and there was one time when my daughter just started saying a certain word,

00:09:23 Speaker_00
And yeah, so that's when you're like, uh-oh, I better stop it.

00:09:27 Speaker_01
That is the ultimate definition of mimic at the lowest level, right? At the most basic level, it's what kids do before they have the context for things. And they're just mimicking their parents, right? Yep. That's a great example of mimic.

00:09:41 Speaker_01
And then, of course, as you said, can you mimic J-Lo or can you mimic this celebrity, that celebrity? Sure, we do that too. Actors, celebrities, singers.

00:09:51 Speaker_00
Mm-hmm Elvis. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah an Elvis impersonator. Oh my god Yeah, so yeah, another thing you could say is she practiced mimicking celebrities for the school talent show so mm-hmm so

00:10:05 Speaker_00
Basically, mocking may be mimicking someone, but it's a bit mean-spirited. Mimicking, it's tough to say that, may be more just a little bit neutral, doing something funny, doing an impression. Yes. Yes.

00:10:21 Speaker_01
I totally agree. I love that. It's important to notice the difference. All right. So what about the expression imitation is the highest form of flattery, Michelle? What do we think about that? Have you heard that expression?

00:10:33 Speaker_00
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I always like that one. I think it reminds me of. Have you ever shown up somewhere or heard about people showing up somewhere and they're wearing the same outfit?

00:10:46 Speaker_01
Yeah, sometimes like they took your style or something.

00:10:49 Speaker_00
Yeah, right. Exactly. I mean, so sometimes people can get upset if somebody they feel that they feel that somebody copied their style or something like that. But then you have to say, oh, well, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

00:11:03 Speaker_00
What does that mean?

00:11:04 Speaker_01
It just means that they see what you do, maybe how you dress or how you speak, and they want to be like you. Right. And kids will do this, too. Maybe they'll play certain games.

00:11:13 Speaker_01
Maybe a good example of that could be if a kid's dad or mom is a nurse or a doctor and they want to play that game at home with their sibling all the time. Right. Very good example.

00:11:24 Speaker_00
For sure. Yes. Yes. And actually, I one of my favorite people to imitate in the whole world is my dad. I he's my favorite person in the world to do an impression of. But it's all in good fun. And I do it in front of him.

00:11:38 Speaker_00
And everybody in my family just cracks up when I do it. It's just my sometimes I'll just break out into being my dad. And sometimes I'll say to him, oh, you know, imitation is the highest form of flattery. It's all in good fun. He laughs.

00:11:51 Speaker_00
It's just it's just a lot of fun. So that's like If I could imitate one person, it's my dad.

00:11:57 Speaker_01
Oh, that's and that makes me actually think of SNL. Right. Because that's an L. I mean, we just had our elections and maybe this will go away. But for the last year or so, there have been there's been a Kamala impersonator. Right.

00:12:08 Speaker_00
Yeah.

00:12:09 Speaker_01
What's her name? Maya Rudolph. And that's what they do during election seasons on SNL is they're on there all the time mimicking. And it is really, really funny. I mean, they come up with the quirkiest parts. I think for a while. Who was it? The ball.

00:12:23 Speaker_01
One of the Baldwin's. was Donald Trump. Yes. It's just I don't know. That's another example of mimicking people. Yeah.

00:12:31 Speaker_00
Right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's huge. I mean, people love when they can hear celebrity impersonations. I think it's just so much fun. Exactly.

00:12:39 Speaker_01
And if you guys aren't sure what we're talking about by SNL, it's Saturday Night Live, which is one of the most famous TV shows in American culture. I'm not sure if it streams globally. I don't actually know.

00:12:50 Speaker_01
But check it out if you have access to it, for sure. All right.

00:12:54 Speaker_00
Okay, so yeah, I think after the break we're going to do some other words that go along with this topic.

00:12:59 Speaker_01
Sounds good, Michelle. See you in a few minutes. All right, not a few minutes. We're back in a few seconds here. Here we are.

00:13:05 Speaker_01
All right, so there's a few other words that go into these buckets here that we need to address because they do come up when we talk about different topics. What's the first one, Michelle?

00:13:16 Speaker_00
It's to copy, right? But a lot of times people say copycat. So it's a similar, it's a similar idea. Usually copycat is more negative. So if you just say, Oh, my sister copies everything I do, it can be frustrating. Okay, so that's a negative spin.

00:13:33 Speaker_00
But especially if, you know, a kid might call another kid like you're a

00:13:37 Speaker_01
copycat, your copycat. Yeah, exactly. That's where it's used the most.

00:13:41 Speaker_01
It's also used, unfortunately, when it comes when there's a crime, like when there's a sometimes shooting, you might be on alert for copycat shooters that and that does sometimes happen. So that's another place where we use it.

00:13:54 Speaker_01
We just want to show you guys all the broad places in society where we do use these terms. Okay? Okay. What's the next one, Lindsay? All right, parrot. I like this one. It comes back to just what parrots do, right? Right. Yeah.

00:14:09 Speaker_01
She just parrots what her friends say, and she needs to think for herself. So yeah, parrots are the ones that can speak, right? The birds. Have you ever interacted with a parrot? Have you ever been mimicked by a parrot?

00:14:23 Speaker_00
No, but I have seen parrots, but no, I haven't had that happen to me. What about you?

00:14:29 Speaker_01
I don't think I have, but definitely when I'm in the presence of a parrot, I'm like, oh my gosh. But watch what you say. Is this bird going to make fun of me now? I sort of, it feels weird. It feels weird.

00:14:42 Speaker_00
Yeah, no, it's true. It's true. So you might say she, oh wait, did you already say the example?

00:14:48 Speaker_01
Yeah, I'll say it again, though, just to solidify. for our listeners. Because in this case, we talked about a parrot as a noun, an animal, a bird, but this is used as a verb, right? So we just take that noun and we turn it into a verb.

00:14:59 Speaker_01
She just parrots what her friends say and she needs to think for herself. And of course, yeah, yeah.

00:15:05 Speaker_00
I think it is mostly a negative when you say somebody parrots someone. I think it's more like, oh, that they're not thinking for themselves or they're just, you know, going with what the other person says. So to me, that one is usually more negative.

00:15:20 Speaker_01
Right. And then in society, we see this where if you say certain people will parrot what they hear on the news or maybe on podcasts or on certain channels, that sort of thing, or what they read. Right.

00:15:32 Speaker_01
So you might see that when you're having broader conversations in society. OK, good. Yeah. What else, Michelle?

00:15:38 Speaker_00
The last one we'll do is impersonate. So that's also a similar idea. And this goes a lot with those with an actual vocal impersonation, I think. Tom does the best impersonation of Jimmy Fallon.

00:15:56 Speaker_01
And we're going to bring in Jimmy Fallon. I haven't really heard that many of Jimmy Fallon's impersonations, actually.

00:16:02 Speaker_00
Mm hmm. Yeah. No, he's he does some pretty good ones. So Jimmy Fallon also. Yeah. As Lindsay mentioned, SNL stars. There's this new comedian, Matt Friend. He does a lot of good celebrity impersonations.

00:16:14 Speaker_00
And then, you know, Dana Dana Carvey is the one who did. Yeah. He did Biden.

00:16:19 Speaker_01
Oh, he did. But OK, OK. All right. Yeah. I didn't see him doing Biden, but that's interesting.

00:16:23 Speaker_00
He did it on the most recent ones on the most recent episodes. That's it's Dana Carvey.

00:16:28 Speaker_01
Are you an SNL fan? Do you watch it all the time?

00:16:30 Speaker_00
Yeah. OK, I'm I'm I skip around. I usually watch I usually watch the beginning and then especially in the best time to watch SNL is when there's an election. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I don't always watch it, but then I do. And I do like weekend update.

00:16:46 Speaker_00
I think that's funny.

00:16:47 Speaker_01
Got it. All right, Michelle, let's get into a real quick role play and then we'll hop off because we're running out of time here. So here we are old friends that knew each other in high school and we're talking about high school. So reflecting on it.

00:16:59 Speaker_01
Right. OK, here we go. It was a lot of fun, but we went to school with some mean people. Oh, I remember Jerry used to mock all the teachers. It was funny sometimes, but not that nice.

00:17:11 Speaker_00
Yeah, it was pretty rude when he would imitate everything Miss Smith said.

00:17:15 Speaker_01
Definitely. Remember when April got mad at Leah for copying her outfit? Of course.

00:17:21 Speaker_00
She didn't seem to think imitation was the highest form of flattery.

00:17:24 Speaker_01
I guess not. One of my favorite times in high school was when all the students had that assembly where they would impersonate the teachers. So fun that they had an assembly for that every year.

00:17:41 Speaker_00
Yeah, they were pretty good at mimicking them.

00:17:43 Speaker_01
Okay. Sorry about that.

00:17:46 Speaker_00
No, that was me.

00:17:46 Speaker_01
Sorry. All right. So basically, yeah, we're reflecting on our high school experience. And maybe there was a lot of mocking, mimicking and imitating in high school, right? Teenagers will do that, right?

00:17:58 Speaker_01
So I said, Oh, I remember Jerry used to mock all the teachers. And again, just reflecting on the meaning of mock, Michelle.

00:18:06 Speaker_00
Mm-hmm. Imitate, but with a little bit of a mean spirit.

00:18:10 Speaker_01
Yes. And then we used imitate, right? You said, yeah, it was pretty rude that he would imitate everything Miss Smith said. So now we're just reaching for different vocabulary. You don't want to just say mock again in that scenario.

00:18:21 Speaker_01
You need the vocabulary range, right?

00:18:23 Speaker_00
Yes. Yes, exactly. And then you said, remember when April got mad at Leah for copying her outfit?

00:18:31 Speaker_01
Mm hmm. Nice. Nice. And then you said, of course, she didn't seem to think imitation was the highest form of flattery. So that means April wasn't happy, wasn't didn't consider that a compliment. Right. Right. She was just mad.

00:18:46 Speaker_00
And then you said one of my favorite times in high school is when all the students had that assembly where they would impersonate the teachers.

00:18:53 Speaker_01
Mm-hmm. Yes. And then you said, yeah, they were pretty good at mimicking them. Nice. I mean, it makes me think of fashion. Isn't fashion just like the ultimate form of mimicking each other? We all just mimic each other.

00:19:06 Speaker_01
Like the new trend, the jean trends, the, you know, now we're wide leg jeans. I will not, like, I searched the internet to get skinny jeans still. I will not leave my skinny jeans. I will pay whatever I need to to still get skinny.

00:19:18 Speaker_01
But eventually I'm sure I'll take on the wide leg. But it is true. Fashion is the ultimate. mimicking in a sense.

00:19:24 Speaker_00
Yeah, that's true. And we all do. Yeah, because sometimes then it takes a little while for everybody to catch on new trends. But then when you see it enough, then eventually it happens to you too. And then you're like, Oh, now I'm wearing wide leg pants.

00:19:37 Speaker_01
Yep, it will happen. So Michelle, is there another episode we should check out before we finish up today?

00:19:42 Speaker_00
Yes, guys, check out episode 2299 was, do you know these expressions all too well?

00:19:48 Speaker_01
All right. Any takeaway for our listener? I think we've been super clear about the differences between mock and mimic. Where should we leave our listeners today?

00:19:55 Speaker_00
Well, guys, let us know if there are any celebrity impressions you can do. I want to know. And just in general, you know, think about with each of these words, they have positive or more negative connotations.

00:20:07 Speaker_00
So really think about which ones you're using. And like in the role play, you're not going to use mock just over and over and over. And this is like a common conversation that could happen. So, we really do need these tools.

00:20:18 Speaker_00
We need many different words to describe these situations.

00:20:22 Speaker_01
Yeah. Yes, 100%. So, we've taken away some interesting cultural tips here. We've gotten into Saturday Night Live, a lot of cultural pieces. And also, this is an episode for your vocabulary range.

00:20:32 Speaker_01
As Michelle said, don't just parrot the same words over and over again, right? Throw in a different word to mean the same thing. That's what we're doing at the B1, B2, C1 level. You guys are ready for that. And that creates more connection. Okay.

00:20:48 Speaker_01
And for sure. Love it. Excellent, Michelle. I'll see you next time. All right.

00:20:52 Speaker_00
Bye, Lindsay.

00:20:52 Speaker_01
Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.

00:21:09 Speaker_01
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