Ok, I admit, 20+ years of playing guitars in heavy bands, motor sports, woodworking, and firearms have taken a toll on my hearing.

I can’t understand a thing people are saying when they are wearing masks. Trying to talk to a cashier, or a clerk, or my coworkers is super hard and frustrating right now.

Didn’t realize how important the visual cues of somebody’s face were. It’s hard enough when you have some hearing damage, it’s way harder when you can’t see them.

Ugh. Fuck 2020.

Right there with you, man. I've gotten to the point where if I have to ask someone to speak up more than once, I don't and simply go about my business as if what they had to say wasn't important enough to hear. The exception to that being my son; at age 6, he requires more patience. But if everyone else can't be bothered to speak up through their magic talisman, then yeah, not important enough to hear.

Also didn't realize I was turning into a lip reader to augment my crappy hearing.

I quit doing the grocery shopping when the stores and Costco started requiring masks. Prior to that decision, when I couldn't understand their mumbling, I told them that. Most would pull their masks down and repeat. The plastic shields are also worthless when they have people in the checkout lane behind them within two feet and they have to reach around the shield to accept a check anyway.

Ironic that AZ shoppers were told that employees demanded the mask requirement, but when I ask how they liked breathing through a mask all day and reducing their oxygen level, they responded it wasn't their idea.

Corporate decisions...

The best part is when the dumb shits wear the mask, but not over their nose.

The mask isn't doing a bit of good and you can't hear whatever they are trying to tell you.

I hadn't noticed that many people with a tracheotomy before...

My wife is getting hard of hearing. I must repeat myself 3 times. First to get her attention, 2nd time so she sort of hears me, and the final time...I don't know why. I'm toying with the idea to just stare at her. Its beyond annoying. She doesn't do it on purpose, she really can't hear. I try not to mumble.

The local Chinese food place has plastic/plexiglass sheets completely isolating the workers behind the counter from the customers, further muffling the voices; many places have something like this.

Why will the Chinese food place survive? Because they're the *only* place I've been that has added a very loud and clear intercom system. Even when the idiocy ends and the plexiglass is history, they should leave that in place, feedback permitting, because they can hear everything you say just as if you were talking right into their ear, and vice versa.

Wow. Reading these sounds so familiar. To the OP: my problems seem to stem from playing in a couple of pipe bands when I was younger. That high-pitched, shrill sound combined with almost always practicing indoors took a big toll on my hearing. A couple of hearing tests about 14 years ago revealed definite hearing loss but the last couple of years have gotten noticeably worse. I went in a couple of weeks ago and had a full battery of hearing tests done. It wasn't just the tone tests, it was also recorded spoken words that I had to repeat back to determine phonetic loss. The guy could then correlate which phonetic sounds I had lost with the graph of the tonal loss. I am at about 20% loss with a phonetic loss of all the usual suspects: c, s, f, sh, etc. On top of all that, I have had a lot of tinnitus for many years now.

This last week, I went back in to get fitted for my new hearing aids. Top of the line, bluetooth, and digitally programmed and controlled. They sit up behind the top of my ears with a clear line running to the receiver that is placed in my ear canal. Pretty much invisible. The receivers are open-dome in that they allow natural sound to pass through and only pump in the frequencies that I'm deficient in. Once we activated them, it was amazing what they can do. The guy was wearing a mask and I could now understand him. The other day, I discovered that the computer/display on my WaterRower actually beeps when I set it for a workout. I have had the thing for something like 4 years now and never knew that. Yesterday, I went out to get the mail and heard a bird that I would never have known was there.

It is going to take some time to get used to them but they really do work. Cool features are that you can pair them with your phone to use them with calls or stream music. They included a bluetooth TV tuner that pairs with them and streams the TV audio. I don't watch much TV in the first place but that one is really useful. Its volume is independent of the TV so my wife doesn't have to crank it up like before and I can hear everything over in the kitchen without having to look at the TV for visual cues, aka lip reading. I can also listen to music from my computer at a low level through my computer speakers instead of using headphones. The weirdest thing about using them is hearing yourself. It picks up sound from both your mouth and from inside your head so it makes you sound more "artificial" than other people. Another weird side effect has been that "S" sounds actually sound more like "SH" to me which makes it sound as though everybody has a speech impediment. It's even worse with me because as I hear it, my brain and my mouth feel that they should actually say it that way and my wife said it was really noticeable that first day. I go back in for a follow-up next week and I'll see if the guy can help program some of that out.

My advice is to get a full hearing test done and see about getting hearing aids. I'm only 57 and feel somewhat embarrassed because I don't seem old enough to need them. Plus there is still some social stigma attached to wearing them. However, they really do work. Yes, they are quite expensive but they came with a 45-day return policy. However, I liken it to a drug dealer who gives the first dose for free. Now that I've had a taste, I don't want to return them. I was lucky that my wife works for a medical clinic that has contracted with the hearing group so I got the employee/family discount. There were 3 levels of hearing aids: Standard, Advanced, and Best. The discount on the Standard was the smallest. The Advanced was more and the Best had the greatest discount. I ended up going with the Best as I got them for the same price as the Standard without a discount.

I subbed for middle school science last week and it's a really good thing I didn't repeat everything I thought the students might have said. I brought a face shield with me and wore it for a minute. It bounces the sound of my voice right back to my ears. I did note there were no mask wearers in the teachers' lounge. Watching the teachers and students, it's obvious the masks are for show. I give it a month before the school rescinds the mask requirement.

My county voted against a mask ordinance. A week later they voted unanimously for a mask resolution, which has no legally binding effect. It's just an opinion that the County Board supports mask wearing. That hasn't stopped people from misreporting and/or misunderstanding what that means.

I’m almost to the point that if someone isn’t facing me I can’t understand a word. I don’t know when it started or if I’m just now noticing but everyone seems to turn away as soon as they start talking. It’s infuriating and I’m constantly telling people they need to face me if we’re going to communicate.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
My wife is getting hard of hearing. I must repeat myself 3 times. First to get her attention, 2nd time so she sort of hears me, and the final time...I don't know why. I'm toying with the idea to just stare at her. Its beyond annoying. She doesn't do it on purpose, she really can't hear. I try not to mumble.

LOL that reminded me of a joke...

A husband notices his wife’s hearing is deteriorating and decides to visit her doctor for advice.

“I can’t speak to my wife directly as she might find it offensive, given our old age” he says to the doc.

“There’s a simple trick you can try to determine her hearing” explains the doctor. “Simply ask her a question at a distance and if she doesn’t hear you, move slightly closer and ask again until she does”.

That night, the husband arrives home and sees his wife in the kitchen cooking. He thinks to himself, “what a perfect opportunity to test her hearing”.

He stands in the doorway of the kitchen and promptly asks;

“What’s for dinner honey?”

No answer. He moves closer.

“What’s for dinner honey?”

Still no answer. He moves even closer.

“What’s for dinner honey?”

Still his wife doesn’t answer. He now sees how serious her hearing problem is. At this point, he is stood right next to his wife.

“What’s for dinner honey?”

“FOR THE FOURTH FUCKING TIME WE’RE HAVING CHICKEN”

It reminds me of Charlie Brown. Wah wih wah wah wah. “I still can’t understand you” Wah wih wah wah wah. “I still cannot understand you.” Geez.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
My wife is getting hard of hearing. I must repeat myself 3 times. First to get her attention, 2nd time so she sort of hears me, and the final time...I don't know why. I'm toying with the idea to just stare at her. Its beyond annoying. She doesn't do it on purpose, she really can't hear. I try not to mumble.

My wife is sort of the same, except it isn't that she can't hear - she doesn't pay attention. If we aren't in conversation, and I say something it doesn't register and I inevitably have to say it again after she says, "Huh?" It drives me nuts. Maybe I should get a horn and blow it first and then say what I want to say.

And more to the OP's point, when that fucker at the drive-in mumbles through a mask from behind that plexiglass shield I have no chance of understanding him.

quote:

Originally posted by Mboroman:
My advice is to get a full hearing test done and see about getting hearing aids.

This. If you truly need the hidden bits behind the mask to know what is being said, it's not the mask - you've been relying on lip reading to carry you through.

The new tech is not cheap, but the ability it provides to be part of conversations and hear what is actually going on is amazing.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
it's not the mask

It's not, huh...

The only time I get frustrated at the mask/muffling voices is at one particular doctor I go to. I have tinnitius to the max, no hearing aid is going to tone that down.

Lot of other instances too, but not worth posting here.

All of the above.

Tinnitus sucks. Add people who naturally have mumble-mouth...then add a mask that muffles their mumble-mouth...and i find myself asking “excuse me, I’d didn’t understand a word you said” more frequently.

Maybe this will teach people to annunciate their speech.

I feel your frustration. I usually shop with my wife, when they mumble something, I give her my dumb "WTF" did they say look, and she answers for me...

I never realized how much I rely on lip movement to understand what's being said. I had to deal with a lady at the bank that I swear I could not understand what she was saying. I'd ask her to repeat and she'd just say it again at the same volume. I ended the meeting and came back with my wife as translator. She is now referred to as Esa Tikkanen.