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Chewing. In particular my wife chewing, a moment in which I feel as if I can hear every muscle in her mouth, movement of her tongue, excretion of digestive saliva, all the way to the swallowing. Caveat: I do not always notice this. Could it be the TV? She often has the television on as well so I think the mouth noises are muted usually, but when they aren't, all the sounds set me on edge. Or maybe it's just sometimes that it's so audible--meaning not always, but only some times, and at other times my mind switches off. I do not notice chewing in other people, though just recently my son ate a doughnut there at the table as I was typing something and it was as if he were suddenly chewing just like his mother. I nearly said something, but didn't--because really it's not his problem, it's mine.
Again, is this just me sometimes? Or is it them, all the time? Do people notice their noisy mouth-noising? Do I also do this and annoy other people? SA writes:
He also writes in that article about background noises. Something odd I've realized is that while background noise is ubiquitous in Japan--my rice cooker plays music when it's done, my bath plays an electronic riff of Canon in D when the bath is full, you hear announcers saying: "こちらは、男子のトイレ". THis means "This is the men's toilet." It goes on and on. In some train stations there are fake bird noises. I still don't know why (Someone here will probably tell me.)
None of it bothers me. But put me on a plane to the US with a bunch of Americans, or in a public space with Americans yakking on and on, or some random person yakking in English on their phone in Cleveland, and it's very annoying. Because I can understand every word, and have forgotten how to tune out the way I can subtly tune out Japanese speakers.
Also I had never heard of the McGurk effect mentioned in that article. Weird.
Anyway the chewing thing, maybe it's something bizarre about me, my wife, and, now, my son. Thankfully I don't worry about things too much, so I tend to just let it go because fuck it.
Based on the Asterix article, it sounded like chewing was one of the most common triggers, so apparently you're not alone. I can't really guess why, though. I would imagine that hewing used to be even worse, with older people losing their teeth?
I was once on a plane near some people who were in a Young Opera Performers program, which I know because they talked about that, and about the petty drama of their cohort, and about the clothing choices of some of their cohort members, all in very loud, clear voices that carried well through the plane. I can see how possessing a loud, clear voice might be a pre-requisite for being an opera performer, but did not at all appreciate their using those voices to go on about someone's clothing choices for half an hour.
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