Now Hear This!

My husband says I don’t “translate well to cyberspace.” Mostly what that means is that, contrary to general popular belief and the attitude of my ex-husbands, I am less offensive when you can actually hear my voice as opposed to just reading it. Apparently, my husband is not the only one who thinks that. My dear friend Christina, upon seeing an email reply I had drafted to a student once, said, “Man, you are a…well, let’s say ‘witch.’” I prefer to think of myself as succinct and forthright. I try to tell my students that email is a concise form of immediate communication--and IMing and texting shouldn’t happen at all--and if they want in-depth conversation to come to class and we’ll bond. Which we do because I can talk at length in a lecture (by definition) and they can hear my tone, inflection, pace, and pauses (unless they are being fiendishly clever by hiding their Ipod earbuds under their hoodie). And that makes a big difference. I get in “trouble” all the time because it seems the average person’s eye is not calibrated to pick up sarcasm. If they don’t hear it, they don’t get it. Honestly, sometimes if they do hear it, they don’t get it, but there’s a better chance if I’m actually vocalizing. I’m a speech teacher and an actress--sound is vital to performance. In Al Perkins’ The Ear Book, tribute is paid to those little speakers on the sides of our heads. All hail the ear!

http://www.amazon.com/Ear-Book-Bright-Early-Books/dp/0394811992

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Perkins_%28children%27s_author%29