The Loud Talking Chinese

i really don’t enjoy sitting with the loud talking people. Imagine i m living with one of them on a daily basis. It’s not that i don’t like her as a person. I like her a lot and she is a very kind person. It’s just that i don’t like the loud talkings.. my own voice is not low and it’s not too loud usually. Sometimes it hurts my fragile ears when someone talks too loud besides me. I cannot put on ear plugs because my ears would get physical pains from the musics when they are so concentratedly played at my ears.

I don’t want to say anything, or neither do i know how to say it diplomatically, knowing it’s been a habit for decades and probably been formed ever since childhood. It’s built in character and it’s a way of living. It’ll be extremely difficult to be altered. If i m going to ask for a change that’s probably like depriving one ‘s fun of talking..

Before we are a man or a woman, we individuals are a human first. Humans are full of disadvantages and sometimes shortcomings while together with their other sorts of merits. How can i ask for another person ‘s perfection when i neglect my own imperfections? There are certain things that other people possibly can not bear with me that they just don’t tell me about.

And, after all, we Chinese generally have a tendency to talk loud. Dr. Lin Yu Tang, in one of his books, had explained the root of us loud talking Chinese people. Basically, his idea was, in the ancient days, our forefathers had all lived in the mountains. And then there were, of course, no mobile phones or bicycles, the people living in the mountains had to cry really loud to talk to the people living in the other side of the mountain, in order that they could be heard. Hence, the need of talking loud was there. And for generations and generations, the genes passed on. So, according to Lin, the genes of talking loud is built in us Chinese in general.

And, after all, the Chinese people are a passionate people. When friends gather at karaoke, when in the canteens... people tend to talk loud and and laugh loud. The music of sound then becomes the music of noise. Imagine when everyone talks in a low voice, how deadly the atmosphere one could perceive?!

Now with the understanding of all these, i suddenly feel better. And, especially, at the age of 40, I suddenly realize a lot of times in life i have to choose to 委曲求全. And, like it or not, that’s life! If you can’t change it, you live with it!

Finally, while the typhoon is still there, can i ask the wind to blow away the too loud talking people besides me?