I found myself sitting in the lobby of the Governor hotel this morning down town Portland. I found a plush chair next to a window and was catching up a little with the newspaper while waiting for a meeting when two business men came in the room, their loud, booming voices preceding their entrance.
They sat far apart at a large round table across the once quiet room and continued an intercourse that could have addressed a crowded room.
Any hope of maintaining my reading focus was lost once these two arrived. I had to read out loud, quietly, under my breath to keep my focus from then on.
Any idea why guys do this, seems to be worse with business men? Some women do the same thing with their loud laughter and boisterous talk.
I wish I could think of an acceptable way to confront these "audio hogs", the thought of tossing my cold coffee on them probably wasn't the best idea.
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4 comments:
Well, I think I know why they do it. One word: ego! How to confront them is not that easy to figure out. We went out to eat last Sunday after church...and had a similar problem. The folks next to us were feeling so self-important they felt the whole restaurant should hear their words of wisdom. Grrrrr. Maybe we could suggest they "get a blog"! ha-ha!
At least with a blog we could CHOOSE if and when we wanted to hear them. Maybe you are on to something there about the need to be "heard"?
You know, when Dave and I went to Vancouver B.C. this summer, it seemed like the volume meter just ratcheted several notches down, as far as people's personal conversations go. Taking the train back into Seattle, after a week in B.C., it seemed blaringly obvious how much louder the U.S. folks were. We attributed it to two things:
1.)the amount of personal space in Vancouver is quite low, and we read that with such a high population density, people truly value being able to keep to themselves. No one yelled at us, or was obnoxious, or flirted, or was overly weird to us the whole time there.
2.)We sort of believe that there's an American sense of entitlement, sprung even from our very sense of independence, that thinks that our opinions and life is wonderful and important enough to be broadcast as far as possible. A book I was reading talked about how Canadians are raised as cogs, almost, and not in a bad way. Just a way where they're all supposed to try really hard to get along, to work with everyone else to keep things up. Not so much the tootling horns of our special uniqueness, down here.
But sometimes I overthink things.
Interesting comparison of cultures. I had not consdidered it an American issue but I would like to observe more on that.
Thanks for the comment D
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