Why does everyone do this?
“What?” means “I didn’t hear what you said.” It doesn’t mean “I heard and understood what you said, but I’m overwhelmed by how many words you used, please summarize the sentence in one word.”
Please, just say all the words again, in order. I’m not stupid, just hard of hearing. You make it more complicated when you just repeat a random word from the sentence.
Thank you.
“shigyu, that’s such an insignificant thing to rant about.”
Sorry, but your actions have forced me into this lame pitting. Maybe next time you’ll learn!
…I’m sorry, what?
high five I so agree with you! Or, if they do repeat the entire sentence, they do it really…fucking…slowly. Gah!! I’m not retarded!! I was just distracted and/or had other background noise going on while you were talking.
Damn I thought I was the only one. high fives again, just for good measure
Oh, by the way, welcome to the boards!
What’s that? They’re fucking slowly?
Or not a bit louder. On the third go round - it may be time to realize you aren’t talking loud enough.
I totally agree with you! It’s annoying as hell. On the other hand, it’s been happening since I was a child, so I’ve kinda gotten used to it, if I can’t figure it out by the 4th “What did you say?” I’ll give up.
Though it really has improved my puzzle solving skills at least. “Okay, I heard Volkswagen, shotgun and he just repeated the word ‘movie’- what is he trying to tell me?”
This is entirely different, but I shall use this thread to gripe about it…
I hate to repeat myself. It is irrational, I know, but I always hate to. For that reason, I have developed an annoying habit of over articulating every word that I say.
For some reason, people will still say, “huh?” sometimes. I have discovered the real reason that they do this…they do it when they don’t *wanna * hear what you have just said.
Me: So that will be 129.99 for a full hour of support
Customer: I’m sorry…what?
Me: So…that…will…be…1…20…9…
I CAN SHOUT! DON’T HEAR YOU!
Yes! And some people (well, my brothers) take a while to get the idea that they should repeat what they said, then say it v e r y s l o w l y AND in a very pissed-off voice to let me know that it really is terrible of me to need to have a clue what they are on about. Oh and sometimes they practically shout it, just to make sure I know how tiresome I am being.
And I thought I was the only one too. 
And do you find they often choose the WRONG random word or words to repeat?
Welcome to the boards, shigyu.
WELCOME, I said.
Great, now you’ve got Foghorn Leghorn posting here.
No kidding. Conversation with my husband:
Husband: {mumblemumble} beat UH at basketball last night.
Me: Who?
H: UH!!
M: Yes, but who beat them?
H: (really irritated) Basketball!!
M: (even more irritatied) I heard that part, I said WHO?
argh.
On a related note I’ve never figured this one out, and it happens to me over and over:
Other Person: a^2 + b^2 = c^2.
Me: Oh yeah?
OP: a^2 + b^2 = c^2.
Hello? I didn’t say “what?” or “huh?” or “please repeat yourself because I didn’t hear you the first time”. I said, “Oh yeah?” which usually means “Really? I didn’t know that.”
I have no idea why people keep doing this to me. On the assumption that perhaps I’m not enunciating and people are indeed hearing “huh?” when I say “oh yeah?”, I’ve taken great care to enunciate. And they still do it. It has me completely baffled. Methinks I need a new interjection for those times when somebody shares information with me and expects a response.
What are you complaining about exactly? That your questioned was responded to with a question? (Or is the question mark a typo?) If so, Does this happen to you a lot? Maybe you don’t speak clearly, and the other person heard it like this:
Well, maybe you make it more complicated, too, because you don’t identify the information you didn’t catch when you say only, “What?”
If you caught the topic (movie) but didn’t understand the speakers proposition, then it helps if you say, “What about the movie?” Then the speaker just has to repeat, "What time is it?
If you didn’t hear the topic, but heard the time, you can say, “What time is what?”
If you didn’t catch anything, say, “What did you say?” not just “What?”
A conversation is a two-way street.
I just saw Herbie Fully Loaded, and now I want to kill Lindsay Lohan.
I’m with the OP.
If I start talking to someone, and they say “what?” I’m going to repeat exactly what I just said. Do you know why? Because I assume they DID NOT HEAR ME. I’m not sure why “what?” has become shorthand for some to mean “I don’t understand what the hell you mean.”
These types of “conversations” were a chronic source of aggravation in our family. We have a high energy, noisy household. So when we are focused on a task we tend to tune out everything around us. Lot’s of “what?” “huh” “did you HEAR me” and repeats. Until we stopped ranting and decided to problem solve by each looking at what we could do rather than thinking anyone else was actually going to change. Your friends likely will not change their behavior. So the options are to continue to be annoyed. Or look at options. Instead of saying “what?” or “huh” try “Excuse me, I was distracted and didn’t hear a word you said.” Or, “I didn’t hear the first few words, who beat UH?” It takes more effort, but it eventually becomes a habit. Which allows me, at least, to move on to the next really annoying thing my significant others do deliberately to bug me.
I’ve got a little hearing loss (from High School band, no less) but this also annoys me. It’s not a problem is people speak up, but some of them just mumble and avoid looking at you no matter what. Hint: I can’t hear what you’re saying easily if you’re looking the other way and garbling things. If my hearing was flawless, it might help a bit, it’s true.
Around my way, convos in which statements are misunderstood involve the use of a lot of “What happened?”'s to elicit the misunderstood pieces of information, no matter what the topic.
I shit you not.
“Candy, could I borrow your Black’s Law Dictionary?”
“What happened?”
“Can I borrow your Black’s, I’ll return it before the end of the day.”
“What happened?”
“You are sooooo beautiful.”
“What happened?”
Takes the book.
“See you later, Candy.”