I was in the airport in Edinburgh today and was surrounded by American tourists waiting for the flight to Dublin. I could clearly hear the conversations of many of these tourists across this rather large lounge. I really doubt any of them could have made out what I was saying to my acquaintance. Anyone else notice this or is it more to do with accent?
I don’t wish to offend and I really don’t want this ending up in the Pit, I’m just curious what others’ perceptions of this are.
Supplimentary question, do Irish people sound loud/quiet/drunk to you (other native English speaker)?
I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Of course, I’m typically perceived as louder than your average American anyway, so I’m probably working with a skewed sense.
If my family is anything to go by, Canadians (especially French Canadians) can be quite loud, not to mention all the hand-talking!
I think there are certain American accents that just seem louder, or at least are more noticeable, than others, so we might think the people are louder than normal. Not that I can tell you which accents those are, because I suck at telling accents apart!
I remember on a cruise ship, there was one group that was clearly together, and their voices stood out from across the pool… but then, if they were all from the same family, that might explain that too. I would say “southern”, perhaps Florida? It was January, so I assume a lot of the cruise-takers were from Florida and nearby states.
Ms. Attack has told me of her childhood in Ireland, when she suddenly realized that all the loud people in ugly shirts were Americans. One of her first childhood memories of working through logic was when she realized that it was possible that there were quiet Americans, but then how would she tell they were Americans if they weren’t loud like the others.
Since she’s also an Irish citizen, I should comment that she doesn’t typically seem drunk or loud, but is frequently quiet, except when she’s not.
I’ve not really noticed the phenomenon. It’s kind of a cliché in the UK (as in Ireland, I’d imagine) but on the occasions I’ve observed Americans in London or Glasgow, I haven’t noticed them being particularly loud.
Irish people don’t strike me as particularly loud either, not those from the RoI. I do feel like I need a megaphone to order a sandwich in Belfast, though. Well, a megaphone and a speech accelerator.
I was once in the Manchester airport when a British official made an announcement to a large group of us in lines at the passport control. He spoke in an ordinary speaking voice, so no one except the 10% or so of us in the front could hear. I immediately heard murmurs of “what did he say?” so I turned around and said “He said…” and repeated his announcement in a voice audible to all. I heard someone say 'Hey, she translated." Proudest moment of my life.
Seriously, my British husband and in-laws have a very hard time speaking loud enough for my hard-of-hearing mom to hear. Their volume switch is stuck to British.
Bottom line: We may not always talk louder, but at least we can when we need to.
My husband and I went to Barbados last year. When we travel, we try to avoid the normal tourist places, and find little hole-in-the-wall fun places that are mostly known only to the locals.
Every night, it was the same thing. We would sit at the bar, and in time start talking to the other patrons. We would talk about this or that, and then at one point we would say something which would identify us as being from the U.S.
“You aren’t Candians? We thought you were Canadians! You are not near loud enough to be Americans!”
We thought this was so strange. But then we would notice when we went out for dinner, that by far the loudest groups were Americans. They were often annoyingly loud, at what would be considered a quiet, romantic restaurant.
We put it down to Americans on vacation, taking advantage of not having to drive home, and drinking more than they would normally.
And I hate to say it, but we did think that if we hadn’t made friends first, while they thought we were Canadians, that many of the people we had so much fun with would not have have been as friendly to us if they had known we were Americans.
Interesting. My brother and I found that the loudest groups we ran into in Europe were Canadians. Of course, I don’t believe that Canadians are any louder in general than Americans, but we just noticed every time noisy groups of them were around.
As a french-speaking Canadian (Acadian, thankyouverymuch), I’ve noticed that Americans tend to look at me in shock when I get going on something - the volume increases as the joviality rises. Thus, it stands to reason that it also happens when I’m drinking. People stop, smile uncertainly at me, and then laugh. “We thought us Americans were supposed to be the loud ones!” I’m told.
shrivel.
But it’s how everyone in my family talks. And most everyone I went to school with. And worked with. You have to fight to be heard over the din. I guess I’m not used to not having to fight. :smack:
I also have a tendency to stop whatever I’m doing if I’m having a conversation. I need my hands to speak, you see.
Looking back, the loudest among us had strong Irish roots, often with our grandparents straight from Ireland, accents fully intact. Make of that what you will. Perhaps it’s the French impurity in our blood that makes us loud. But many of the Irish/Acadian/and/or Newfoundlanders were pretty loud speakers.
For what it’s worth, the actual, born and bred Irish folks I’ve met out here on the west coast? Very quiet voices.
I can tell you that a lot of women hereabouts (Glasgow) seem to talk too low; they specially do it if you ask for clarification of a point, so if the problem was that you didn’t hear them clearly in the first place it gets worse (we’re having 18-people meetings). I was wondering how much that was linked to me getting deaf in my dotage, until I ran into this description in a book I’ve been reading (The complete MacAuslan): “(she) had the finishing school habit of talking very rapidly to her armpit.”
OK, so I may be getting deaf but it sounds like talking “to your shirtneck” is not uncommon around here. It wasn’t common in the USA, I know that much.
I’ve always found the Irish rather loud, then again the last time I was around tons of Irish I was at band camp and the Irish there were a rather large martial arts team for a competition on the same campus so maybe it was just the confidence of the team.
But yes, many of us Americans are quite loud, a lot of Americans (not I, but a lot) also tend to talk really slowly for some reason. Well, in comparison with other languages or people from the UK and such I’ve met at least, it’s not sluggish just not as frantic I guess. OmigoshIsn’tHeSoCute teenage girls notwithstanding. Wow, no wonder a lot of people see us as patronizing, it must sound like ME CIVILIZED, YOU SAVAGE, YOU UNDERSTAND MY WORDS? ME TRY AND TALK VERY LOUD AND CLEARLY FOR YOU! to a lot of people.
Now, what was going on here was the official observing one of the essential rules of British queues: nobody at the back should be completely sure what they’re going to encounter at the front.
Loud speach is more likely because of hearing damage. Look for a place where they experience loud noise over time and they will have poorer hearing and be louder.
Some Americans are loud. Some are quiet. I’m a pretty quiet one, though I can certainly pitch my voice to be heard all over the room, as when reading aloud to a group or something.
I’ve always thought of Australians as rather loud. IME.
Australian here. We are loud. Some American tourists are loud, but in my experience of gatherings of lots of nationalities the loud ones are us and the Danes.
But many of the Irish/Acadian/and/or Newfoundlanders were pretty loud speakers.