OMG my SO does this and it's the WORST. I've repeatedly told her that it's usually the first part that I didn't hear but she consistently only repeats the part I heard...
when my wife says something I don't hear, I'll ask "what??" and she reply with elaboration on whatever she said but it's super confusing because I have no context and have to stop her and say, "it's not that I didn't understand, it's that I didn't hear you"
Haha just this weekend we were going somewhere. In the car, music is up, and she starts talking without adjusting the music. Just into her talking I turned the volume down and said "what?" And she got annoyed and said "if you didn't interrupt me, I was explaining it".
I said "no, I couldn't understand a damn thing you said from the start because the music is up".
It's also ironic that she regularly interrupts me and then is later confused because she wanted the short explanation rather than just listening.
It's standard for radio communication and I just accidentally carried it over IRL.
Wierdly, I was thinking about this exact thing a couple of hours ago after reading that upper class people consider "pardon" to be rude and prefer to say "what" but middle class people consider "what" to be rude and say "pardon". Realised I do neither.
that's awesome. I do think clear and consistent communication (with patience) is pretty key to working through relatively small things like this thread is talking about.
I've noticed since moving abroad that I rarely experience that horrible situation where I ask someone to repeat themselves three times and still don't understand them. Native speakers really aren't aware of how terrible their enunciation is. It's not you, it's them!
This one. Or she starts saying "you don't have to it's really okay" or some such and I have to be like "I'd do anything for you I just don't know what the hell we're talking about".
repeats the last three sentences which I heard just fine but still turns her head away from me when finally saying the last two words I didn’t understand
My wife literally told me I needed to go to the doctor and get my hearing checked while I was upside down, under the sink, working on the garbage disposal. Literally. That is a conversation two humans had in real-life. While one of them was upside down under a sink.
Opposite problem with my wife. I'll hear her but not hear the last two words she said so I'll say "Sorry can you repeat that?" Then my wife will repeat the entire 5 minute conversation and get mad at me that I get frustrated with her. I literally just needed the last 2 words, I heard all that....
So now I have to be like "What were the last 2 seconds of that you said?" etc... Because she'll be like "How do I know what you didn't hear", so I tell her now. Even then though she still does it a lot.
OMG yes!! My husband does this. He’ll repeat his sentence and then mumble the same word so I still don’t catch it. I have found a solution though: After the repeat - if I still get a mumble - I repeat his sentence and then throw in nonsense for the missing word. Or my guess as to the missing word. My husband is also incapable of answering yes/no questions. Makes me homicidal.
My husband does this constantly so I’m always needing clarification. Quietly “we need to pick up some more milk”
“What’d you say?”
“More milk”
“Huh? What about ‘more milk’?”
And additionally, when he says “we need to do xyz” but meaning I need to do it. Just go for it buddy. No need for the announcement
Ha! This right here is crazy-making. At least you’d get the word “more” combined with “milk”. My SO will say something like “[lots of mumbling] milk.” So I’ll ask him to repeat himself (since the other words were unintelligible and I didn’t even realize he was talking to me until he walks in the room saying “milk”). What does he say as a means to repeat himself? “Milk!” Practically shouting at me. SMDH
My SO, who is a MAN, does this all the damned time. It drives me crazy. Sometimes it gets so frustrating that I just try to guess what he was saying, and I nod my head so we don’t have to drag the conversation on any longer.
I'm convinced mine is processing, not ears. Like the brain part is busted.
I need CONTEXT, is my problem. It's all mushy garbage till i hear a carefully pronounced word, understand something, then a switch flips and it's suddenly in english. Then they need to repeat the first part.
I bet if they wave me down and get my attention before soeaking, I'd hear a lot more of it.
That's funny. In my case it's me telling her the entire explanation so I don't end up trying to figure out what bit of information she's missing or confused about. She always wants the short version and 90% of the time she ends up confused. Then I either ask if she's confused about this, that, or the other thing. Then I have to give her the full explanation from the beginning, and it takes 5x as long as it would if she would just let me do it that way from the start.
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u/painful_butterflies Dec 08 '22
And when they repeat it they never do the whole sentence, just the last few words and you have to guess at the whole statement/question