I recently had a professional encounter with a man and woman from England (him) and Ireland (her.) They were extremely quiet and low voiced. I couldn’t understand a word he said. He spoke very softly, rarely moved his lips and had a thick accent (at least as far as I could tell.) She was similarly soft voiced and rarely spoke, though I could grasp what she was saying when she did. This wasn’t a major issue as I was leading them on a tour and did most of the talking anyway, but it was somewhat off-putting because I prefer having a conversation rather than giving a lecture.
I’m a bit hard of hearing and thought it was just me, but I mentioned it to a co-worker afterwards and she said she couldn’t understand them either.
But really, they were unusually quiet and I simply wondered if it was a cultural thing with them.
I’m dealing with professionals. Six figure salaries. I do have poor hearing as I’ve said. I’ve got 6k hearing aids, three different sets of head phones, the works.
Instead of buying a cheap pair of head phones with a mic, that they can use on their computer, I have two that will gather round a laptop and look over each others shoulders. Often in a room with really bad echoes.
I had an aunt who was a low talker/soft spoken, but was aware of it and actively attempted to speak up when she noticed her audience straining to make out what she said.
Towards the end of her life, her own hearing and eyesight were failing, so her ability to modulate from feedback was hampered: she could not hear her own voice, so she could not tell he had essentially become inaudible.