# Do Americans talk louder in public than other English speakers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514 "2008-06-19T20:41:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Viridiana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Viridiana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Viridiana)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/41 "2008-06-23T18:52:55Z")
Not necessarily, I’m American and quite softspoken in public. In fact, people other than the ones I’ve known the longest, and sometimes even those, often have to make me repeat myself. I am half Japanese, if that matters. My mother (full-j) is fairly quiet too, though she can certainly laugh and yell loudly. I’d say a higher percentage of Brits I’ve talked to have been quiet, but a few were really loud and annoying (I recognize this as an individual thing, though). The few Irish and Australian people I’ve been in conversation with have seemed a little louder than normal (or just more assertive with their sentences, maybe). ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/42 "2008-06-24T02:32:37Z")
I’m an American who lives abroad and I can state without hesitation that Americans can be very loud in public (Australians and Germans too). It’s always kind of jarring when I go back to the states and people are just shouting conversations to each other in public, like one family member is in the next aisle of the supermarked and the mom is asking what kind of soup he wants. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/43 "2008-06-24T02:37:22Z")
Why is it when Americans are loud, it’s a bad thing, but when those from ther cultures are loud, it’s considered a good thing - their loudness is given positive labels such as expressive, animated, gregarious, and so on, or just accepted as part of the vocal timber of their native language, rather than considered “obnoxious” as Americans are? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/44 "2008-06-24T02:57:21Z")
[QUOTE=madmonk28] I’m an American who lives abroad and I can state without hesitation that Americans can be very loud in public (Australians and Germans too). [/QUOTE] Americans and Australians live in spacious countries and have expansive, individualistic personalities; Germans are just imperious order-givers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/45 "2008-06-24T06:08:10Z")
Germans also do that weird thing where they mark their spot by the pool at five AM then go back to bed and expect everyone to respect their claim (but that’s another thread). ---
**Author:** ![Einmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Einmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Einmon)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/46 "2008-06-24T07:15:16Z")
I’ve just returned from a vacation in Japan and noticed that the loudest people around seemed to be the Americans, which made them stand out rather often (“TRY THIS PIECE OF SUSHI, MOM!!!”). Then again, I traveled alone, so I didn’t have anybody to shout at in German. I noticed a couple of French tourists, though, who quietly talked amongst themselves. However, I went to a concert at the Tokyo Dome, and let me tell you, there’s nothing more deafening than about 55.000 Japanese teenage girls when Japanese idols come on stage. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/47 "2008-06-24T08:05:45Z")
[QUOTE=China Guy] Australians can be quite loud. [/QUOTE] Yep. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/48 "2008-06-24T16:44:16Z")
I think there’s a pretty stark disconnect between urban Americans and rural Americans. City dwellers, especially those in the East, tend to raise their voices a lot. To us Chicagoans, no quiet lot I assure you, a New Yorker, Bostonian, or New Jerseyite is extremely loud and obnoxious. Then again, you plant one of us out in Kentucky or New Mexico and we’d be the loudmouths. I’m guessing that there’s a pretty heavy bias towards Eastern Urban Americans doing more international traveling than your average rural/suburban Midwesterners and Southerners. As a result a European is much, much more likely to meet a New Englander and their loud city accents versus a more nominal sounding Hoosier. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/49 "2008-06-24T17:02:06Z")
[QUOTE=PaulParkhead] 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. [/QUOTE] :dubious: Have you been buying food from the Paisleys? I’ll accept (perhaps) the speech accelerator, but hardly the megaphone. When anyone English passes me by in Belfast, I always think to myself “And you guys think the Americans are loud?” ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/50 "2008-06-24T17:21:11Z")
Anglophone Cameroonians can beat Americans in a loudness match any day. I think loudness is related to how open and expressive your culture is. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/51 "2008-06-24T18:51:48Z")
[QUOTE=even sven] Anglophone Cameroonians can beat Americans in a loudness match any day. I think loudness is related to how open and expressive your culture is. [/QUOTE] Again, though, I’ll say this: why is loudness considered a _bad_ thing when Americans do it, but a _good_ thing when it’s other cultures? ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/52 "2008-06-24T19:51:37Z")
Where in this thread is it suggested that when Americans talk loudly, it is a bad thing, and the opposite when it’s non-Americans? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514/53 "2008-06-24T20:25:54Z")
A point I’m not sure I made in the OP was that these people were discussing somewhat intimate facets of their lives. It wasn’t just small talk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-talk-louder-in-public-than-other-english-speakers/453514.md?page=2)