Comments on: The Loud American

By: When I think about Americans it’s never anti-Americanism, though it might appear that way. « voice from the pack

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:48:42 +0000

[...] to me they are folk I invariably like and have fun with. Occasionally I bump into the odd “American abroad” but only twice in a lifetime of travelling, so we’ll just say these Americans are [...]

By: Paula Edwards

Paula Edwards — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:10:55 +0000

May I add to the last comment that you’ve never been in a restaurant in Fortaleza, Brasil. We have lived in Brasil for almost two years. When we came here we were told that “Brasileiros” looked askance at loud Americans and we needed to be aware of that when we were out in the public. We have since learned that Brazilians have no problem whatsoever yelling at a friend across a crowded restaurant. Added to that most places have a television on with the volume up (and sometimes piped in music at the same time) and “sound cars” passing on the street. We no longer worry about being offensively loud.

By: Karen Albert

Karen Albert — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 02:28:20 +0000

You have obviously never been in an elevator with 4 Italians, or a subway train with Asians heading to Flushing, NY.

By: rbeard

rbeard — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:44:30 +0000

I know of no scientific study of the subject but it seems rather obvious in European restaurants in places visited by US tourists.

My wife and I dined at Kevin Taylor’s in Denver last night and noticed that in the US conversations are very ‘European’, i.e. low pitched, in swank restaurants. So, social class may be a contributing factor, too.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:38:57 +0000

Hi,

Is it an actual scientific fact that the average American conversation takes place at a higher decible level than average conversations in other languages? In my travels, I have unfortunately noticed the ugly American, but also noticed other loud groups. Is it possible that the foreign language sticks out more? Jim

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:29:23 +0000

Ah, one of my pet peeves! I’ve become very sensitive to this, especially in restaurants (and especially in nice restaurants when I’m trying to enjoy a civilized conversation).

I’m the last person to be labeled Luddite, but I wonder how much of an impact technology (in its many forms) has had on this?

Think about the way people have become used to yelling into cellphones, or chatting with their iPod earplugs in. Or the way music is played at high volume in pretty much every bar, restaurant, grocery store, gym.

And if you live in a city, there’s constant noise from traffic and construction; heck, we live on a fairly quiet suburban street, but we’re under a flight path that stalls conversation on a regular schedule.

It would be interesting to measure conversation volume by geographic location; do people in more rural, less industrialized parts of the country yell less (or more)?