Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Please, Use Your Inside Voice

I am not a quiet person. I have to constantly remind myself of that when I'm sitting in my little room with my 5 students gathered around me. I try to remember I don't have to use my *outside* voice, and most of the time manage to regulate the volume to a very acceptable level. If I don't though, the next thing you know, I'm teaching the students on the other side of the wall the lesson and the students sitting close to me resemble a cartoon with their hair blasted back because of the volume of my voice.

I like to blame this phenomenon on the fact that I come from a loud family. I don't know if that is the reason I'm loud or not, but my sisters (three of them) and even my mother to a lesser degree are also loud. We all have the kind of voices that carries well and we talk on top of each other so often more than one voice at a time can be heard making for even more volume. We all can all follow more than one conversation at a time and have input into all of them. I forget at times that in the *real world* this is considered impolite so I've tried to correct it with only mild success.

Any family gathering is a time when everyone is talking, comparing and enjoying each other. We talk and we talk and we talk loudly. When we get excited about a conversation or feel passion about something, yep, we get louder! Some days when I'm home alone I miss that loud conversation and the competition (and I do think we were competing with each other both to be heard and to have attention). I look forward to the holidays -- to using my *big* voice and not having to worry about it -- and for me, that's a good thing.

What about you? Do you speak in a small voice that can bearly be heard, or do you speak up so other can hear? Can you follow more than one conversation at a time and enjoy lively conversation where everyone is putting ideas in at the same time? Or do you want polite converstion? Just wondering.

7 comments:

Ladykli said...

I have to say I use a quiet voice most of the time. My husband on the other hand uses a LOUD voice. He comes from a family of nine. My mother-in-Law has 20 grandchildren and 1 on the way. Last christmas we went there for christmas. On Christmas day there was 35 people in my m-i-l's house talk about loud! We won't even get into sports! LOL!

IdaR said...

There ya go, giving away the family secrets again!

Seriously though, being able to follow more than one conversaton comes in handy at staff meeting (which sometime reminds me of being home again). 5 women talking on top of each other, getting louder as we 'compete' to be heard, and the men just setting there lost....:)

Carrie said...

I learned from the best. :) Paul laughs that the people on the other end of the phone can hear me just fine and I don't need to yell.

I am the loudest librarian probably, well, ever.

Momisodes said...

In public, I'm more quiet.

At home, my daughter has the deer in the headlights look.

However, I do enjoy a lively conversation that gets to the nitty gritty :)

Anonymous said...

interesting question. i try not to be so loud. but i guess it depends. :)

Julie said...

Apparently I am sometimes too loud in public.

At least that's my son's reaction when I am with him and say something that he thinks could offend someone.

Oh, yeah, I also sometimes say kind of potentially offensive things. Like about politics and stuff. Or body parts.

We joke that we should move to one of those countries where English is not widely spoken, because then when we are walking down the street and say something completely offensive, no one around us would understand what we just said.

Talina said...

I am mostly quite but if I need to make a point I have no trouble getting attention. N on the other hand is a very loud talker (especially on the phone)...