“Text, please!”
Does our cultural hatred of phone calls make us unhappier people?
My taxi driver from the airport spotted his coworker driving a car right next to us at an intersection in the heart of Rome.
He called up the friend, having a laugh-filled chat for 3 or 4 minutes (complete with trademark Italian hand-gestures that would make a passenger wonder how he can hold a phone, drive, and talk simultaneously). He hung up, then immediately called his friend back to add one more sentence before hanging up again. I hadn’t seen people talk on the phone like that since the numberpad-texting days.
I think U.S. Americans have a subconscious awareness that our language is ugly, as evidenced by our strong preference for texting over talking.
U.S. English is laborious, clunky, and displeasing to the ear. It somehow invites shrillness as much as it welcomes monotony. As a result, we prefer texting. We rely on written words, shorthand, and emojis to communicate. We get frustrated when people call us instead of texting.
Contrast this with Italians, who seem to know that their language is beautiful — so beautiful, it’s begging to be spoken aloud.
One thing I noticed traveling to Italy is that Italians love to talk.
