Known as the “city that never sleeps”, New York is never quiet. I bought myself a cup of coffee and sat on a bench in Central Park to do this assignment. The weather has suddenly gotten cold lately, and I had my notebook out to take notes on what I heard. You never really realize it, but when you have your ears open in NYC, you literally hear about 5 different languages in a matter of 10 minutes. It reminds you that everyone is leading completely different lives, thinking in completely different languages, and they are so close by.
There aren’t as many kids as I thought there’d be at the park; school must’ve started everywhere already, and the only kids I really see is tourist families. They point and talk in different languages, some are interested in the buildings they see from the park, and some are interested in the over-priced hotdog/ice cream stands inside the park. A bunch of dogs bark at the kids, which only causes them to giggle and chat with each other about the dog.
Another thing you don’t realize in everyday life is how loud cars are; buses, trucks, taxis… You start to be able to tell the difference between the cars by the engine noise they create if you listen close enough. That’s the one thing I learned from doing this assignment; how different things that seemed the same are. Cars and people are all the same when you see them with headphones on, but really, they’re all different.
