About Cell Phones

Erm... about your cell phone. When you call us and leave a message from your cell phone while you are driving, here is what we hear: a garble of words that include a cell number that is barely decipherable.

Ooops! Yup. We cannot understand what you just said!

My favorite is the slo-o-o-o-w talker. The one who describes everything in detail about what they want and which river to raft. And, then... the phone number. In lightening speed, the caller says a flurry of numbers slurred together as a single word. Uhmmm... can you repeat that?

We also have many people whom English is a second language. The language accents make the cell number even more unintelligible. Please people. Slow down when you call so we can be sure to get your cell number so we can call back.

This morning, a caller was driving in their car when they made the call to our reservation office. With the sound of the air whooshing as their car sped down the road, a background of noise colored their speech and made it very difficult for us to understand.

A mumble of a voice, and I think I heard "birthday" and I think they said "this weekend." But, the phone number was a blur and (2) of the numbers were not clearly understood. So we tried each number from 1 - 9 and placed them in different configurations in that cell number. Nada. Nothing. Wrong number.



Maybe they will call back... and maybe they won't. Those who do not call back are usually annoyed with us because we did not return the call. With everyone on a cell phone, keep in mind that the clarity of your voice may not be received by the receipient. Instead, we got a lot of wooshing air, auto traffic noise and a garbled voice.

Guess what? There really is a very good reason why we can not hear each other on cell phones. Cell phones cut out the highest frequencies of the human voice. The results suggest that we may be missing the full meaning of what people say when we talk to them on our mobile devices. So says an article in Discovery.com.

I do wish I could have that cell phone that can call anywhere in the world from any place in the world. But, until that day arrives, all we can do is hope that our guests are understanding and patient. Slow down when you call! We really want to hear your words and call you right back.




A List for Hearing Resources

1. Discovery.com on Why We Can't Hear : http://news.discovery.com/human/cell-phone-frequency-111028.htm
2. Yahoo Answers on Cell Phone Hearing : http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080823200354AAQZFRq
3. Ask Metafilter.com What I Can't Hear You on the Cell Phone : http://ask.metafilter.com/134775/What-I-cant-hear-you-on-the-cell-phone
4. Hearing Loss in Musicians : http://www.uic.edu/sph/glakes/harts/HARTS_library/musnoise.txt
5. Hearnet, A Non-Profit Info Source for Musicians and Music Lovers : http://www.hearnet.com/
6. Oracle ThinkQuest on Phone Etiquette : http://library.thinkquest.org/2993/phone.htm
7. ReviewGist on Best Cell Phones for Hearing Impaired of 2013 : http://www.reviewgist.com/best-cell-phone-hearing-impaired

Written by: ~ EL on Staff for W.E.T. River Trips
Thanks to Discovery.com, Yahoo Answers, Metafilter.com, UIC.edu, Hearnet.com, Oracle Education and Reviewgist for their help on "A List for Hearing Resources".
Photos by mycricket.com, Northwestern University, and WET River Trips on Flickr.
Uuuuhhh... ok everyone, can you hear the whitewater rafting guide when he says "Paddle Forward!" ? (excuse my grammer...)