Is this rude or am I just getting cranky in my old age....

[Breezy_Carol]

I was at the car dealership for service today, waiting in the waiting room for a 60 minute job. There were about 5 of us sitting quietly, reading or looking at phones until this woman comes in. She is talking on her phone, ON SPEAKER PHONE. This went on for about 30 minutes until my work was done so I could leave. And before you ask what the conversation was, I don't know. It was in Spanish.

I don't understand her need for speakerphone. And in that situation, keep the conversation short or walk to a less crowded area.

I went into the kids room so I could close the door and read. When the service writer came to get me, he thought it was rude too.

Oh well. First world problem.

 

[soccerdad72]

Speaker phones being used in public settings is extremely rude.

 

[gwynne]

t doesn't matter what language, it was totally rude.

 

[DuskKodesh]

I was at the car dealership for service today, waiting in the waiting room for a 60 minute job. There were about 5 of us sitting quietly, reading or looking at phones until this woman comes in. She is talking on her phone, ON SPEAKER PHONE. This went on for about 30 minutes until my work was done so I could leave. And before you ask what the conversation was, I don't know. It was in Spanish.

I don't understand her need for speakerphone. And in that situation, keep the conversation short or walk to a less crowded area.

I went into the kids room so I could close the door and read. When the service writer came to get me, he thought it was rude too.

Oh well. First world problem.

It's totally rude! People used to do that all over when I was in college and I got to hear some choice conversation while I was seated outside my classes waiting and studying. Look, I don't need to hear about what your kid's dad did on facebook.

Worst though was when the hubs and I went for hamburgers and sat down and three nice old ladies sat across the room. I barely noticed them until one of them clicks her phone and starts blasting gospel music loud as the phone is capable in the fast food place. They had their own mini concert. After five minutes we had to get out of there, I thought it was going to damage my hearing.

 

[Kitty 34]

Rude behavior can make me very cranky as well and that was rude.

 

[mjkacmom]

Rude! Last time I went for a pedicure, the woman next to me was on her phone the entire time, I did learn that she was saving money on car insurance by switching to geico.

 

[VandVsmama]

I've started to see this more in my local grocery store. It's ridiculous. I have been SO tempted to go up to the person and start talking into their phone. LOL

 

[Hikergirl]

I would be annoyed but I have to ask, why is talking on speaker phone rude but 2 people sitting there talking to each other isn't? Is it because you can't hear the whole conversation and that bother you?
I guess my thought on it is, if it isn't a place where being quiet is expected- like church, or a library, or movie, etc then people are free to talk to whoever they want, even if that person is on the other end of their phone.

 

[gwynne]

I would be annoyed but I have to ask, why is talking on speaker phone rude but 2 people sitting there talking to each other isn't? Is it because you can't hear the whole conversation and that bother you?
I guess my thought on it is, if it isn't a place where being quiet is expected- like church, or a library, or movie, etc then people are free to talk to whoever they want, even if that person is on the other end of their phone.

Easy. Speakerphone in public is nearly always much louder than 2 people having a conversation.
Probably in large part because when visual cues to speech are eliminated, they turn the volume up, up, up.

 

[ZJ5/9D47]

Very rude, especially considering there is a free and available alternative she could use to keep her noise contained better.

This is the first year at WDW that I’ve regularly seen kids in strollers watching cartoons with the volume cranked up to be annoying to surrounding guests. The parents are eating or chatting...or traveling in the park...and the kid is completely focused on the cartoon playing on the smartphone. I just don’t get it.

 

[Searc]

I've started to see this more in my local grocery store. It's ridiculous. I have been SO tempted to go up to the person and start talking into their phone. LOL

Totally rude. When women do it in the bathroom, I will stand there, flushing the toilet repeatedly until they get the hint. Some people lack any sense of self-awareness and there are others that don't give a rat's *** about inconveniencing anyone else.

 

[Hikergirl]

Easy. Speakerphone in public is nearly always much louder than 2 people having a conversation.
Probably in large part because when visual cues to speech are eliminated, they turn the volume up, up, up.

Ok, that makes sense, so if the volume was down it wouldn't be considered rude?
In that case I can't answer the OP since I don't know what the volume level was at.

Maybe it isn't really a thing here, I don't see many people on speakerphone while waiting or walking around a store or whatever. They are on their phones, just not speaker.

 

[soccerdad72]

Made me think of this comedy bit...

 

[cabanafrau]

I can't answer objectively since speakerphones are like nails on a chalkboard with me period. On the rare occasion where I wind up using speakerphone in my own home I cut the conversation short because I find myself getting more and more anxious and more and more frustrated by the minute.

 

[jo-jo]

Years ago as a cashier, people would be yelling in to phone like HI HOW ARE YOU, I NEED TO ASK A QUICK QUESTION.... I'm ready to answer , Fine, how are you, how can I help and then I realized they weren't talking to me at all.

 

[VandVsmama]

Made me think of this comedy bit...

My DH fits the mold of the loud talker that this guy refers to. The kids & I now refer to it as shout-talking. DH is like that Dilbert character named Loud Howard. The longer DH talks on the phone, the louder he talks. Sometimes he even does it when he's not on the phone, so when we're in restaurants sometimes I have to tell DH to quit shouting because everybody else doesn't need to hear about his work day.

The kicker was about a week ago, we were just sitting down to dinner. DH was on call for work (he's in IT) and there was some sort of problem where he had to join a conference call underway to troubleshoot something. So what does he do? Puts the phone on speaker right there at the dinner table and proceeds to shout-talk into the phone. of course, none of the rest of us at the table were allowed to talk. Then I ticked my DH off by saying really loud, "WOULD YOU MIND TAKING THAT CALL IN YOUR OFFICE? WE'RE TRYING TO EAT DINNER HERE." He puts it on mute and says, "I'm trying to eat my dinner!" then took it back off of mute. Then I shouted back, "OH, YOU'RE TRYING TO EAT DINNER WHILE ON THE PHONE? WE'RE TRYING TO EAT DINNER, TOO, ONLY WE CAN'T TALK TO EACH OTHER BECAUSE WE ALL GET TO LISTEN TO YOUR WORK CALL."

Then he went in the other room and shut the door.

The next time I encounter a speaker phone talker in the grocery store (usually the person on the other end of the phone has NO idea they're on speaker, and they're talking about personal stuff), I am very very tempted to walk up to the bull horn phone person and shout into the phone, "HI HONEY! DON'T FORGET THE EX-LAX, TOILET PAPER, AND METAMUCIL! AND I THINK YOU PROBABLY NEED SOME PREPARATION H FOR THOSE HEMORRHOIDS OF YOURS, OK?"

 

[L&Lfan]

I’m not denying the speaker was speaking loudly, but I will say that it’s been my experience that when someone is speaking in a language one doesn’t understand it can be perceived as SOUNDING louder than someone speaking a language one DOES understand. Does anyone else agree?

 

[karmic]

Former oncology nurse- people would talk loudly on speaker phone disturbing sick people getting cancer treatment- was usually an older gentleman- would get huffy when asked to stop. Guess they thought it made them look cool
Merry

 

[Breezy_Carol]

OP here. It wasn't the foreign language that bothered me, it was the volume. And she spoke so fast and the reply was equally as loud and fast, for 30 minutes. What could she be talking about that long? All the rest of us in the room should have started talking loudly to each other, or turned up the every present TV that no one was watching.

I guess I need to go outside and chase the kids off my lawn now.

 

[dish rag]

I’m not denying the speaker was speaking loudly, but I will say that it’s been my experience that when someone is speaking in a language one doesn’t understand it can be perceived as SOUNDING louder than someone speaking a language one DOES understand. Does anyone else agree?

Generally Spanish is a loud language, some Spanish dialects louder than others.