Friday 6 May 2022
Speaker and Listener
Yesterday morning found us sitting outside in the sunshine at one of our favourite cafes, chatting over coffee. The table next to us was occupied by a couple of chaps also chatting over coffee, but it was extremely noticeable that one of them spoke for at least ninety percent of the time. His companion was permitted only the occasional interjection.
To begin with, the compulsive talker described his forthcoming holiday in great detail. It was obviously a moderately exotic package holiday, although he managed to make it sound curiously dull and uninteresting, as if describing a stepwise routine such as how to make pancakes.
In short, the talkative chap came across as a bore. At one point he’d been holding forth continuously for quite a few minutes when the other chap tried to interrupt. “Just let me finish,” replied the bore before carrying on.
The bore was of course mainly talking to himself, performing the role of both speaker and listener in the same skin. His companion effectively tried to interrupt both speaker and listener, but as a listener, the bore was determined to hear the end of his own story. That’s how it came across to this unwilling listener.
As always the coffee was very good.
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5 comments:
I recommend a much louder conversation with your wife, bitterly lamenting the closure of the speaker's destination due to a new virulent strain of bat flu.
My wife has two friends like that. When they all get together, she takes her knitting
Sam - I wish I'd thought of that, although I'm not a loud person.
Bucko - one of my aunts could talk continuously for an hour, but her sisters were pretty forceful talkers too. There was no point trying to join in one of their gatherings.
As someone who doesn't talk a lot, I'm often happy for my companion(s) to do the heavy lifting of keeping the conversation flowing. Its not that I'm not listening, I am. And will chuck in a a contribution here and there, proving I'm not zoned out. I just prefer to take in information rather than try and disseminate it to others. Luckily most of my friends are talkers so it makes our social events flow nicely. I do think we listeners should be appreciated for the service we provide though!
Sobers - I'm not a great talker either, but you are right, listeners should be appreciated for the service we provide.
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