I read people say online that Americans are loud. What does this mean, exactly? Is it literal volume or is it our personality/presentation? Something else?
I may be moving to Australia because of my wife’s job, and I want to better understand this. I want to assimilate and I don’t want to be annoying. I’m personally pretty low key and listen more than speak, but this is my perception of myself.
Let me put it this way: When I am in a restaurant/bar/pub/similar place, I can’t follow the conversations of the people at the other tables. However, with US-Americans, I understand every single word, even if they’re two tables over. Their normal conversational volume is just so much higher. To them, it is completely normal, and they don’t seem to notice. To us, they’re speaking very loudly, as if everyone were hard of hearing, or as if we were on a construction site.
Interesting. I’ll keep my volume in mind. Thank you for your reply!
The fact that you’re even asking this tells me that you’re more considerate than most. You’ll be fine!