Every summer and winter, around the world, American tourists return home accused of the same crime: being loud.
As an American who has lived in Europe, I have found myself complicit. I have caught myself quieting my animated speech, thinking, “They’re going to think I’m one of them.” My own acquaintances have half-jokingly admitted, “I sound like an American,” when they get loud with excitement. But I noticed something else. The same label of “loud” and “noisy” is directed at immigrants or those whose ethnicity is not that of the majority. The observation about my fellow Americans became a window into a more profound question.
What if “loud” is another word for “foreign,” a perception not of decibels but of difference? What if “noise” is simply how the sounds of unfamiliar languages and cultures are perceived?