Chatter

I was fairly young when I moved to Italy some 10 years ago, my husband at the time was a bit anti social. Sitting at a restaurant one evening he commented on how nice it was to not to be forced to listen to others conversations, chatter he called it. We were the only Americans in the place and understood very little Italian at that point. The conversations were low and beautiful, they almost sang, Italian is considered a romantic language and at that moment I could hear why. We sat without a word for sometime enjoying the serenity of such an opportunity. Recently most of my days are spent in a North facing room in the SUB on campus, amongst a large number of engineering students.  The characteristics of the room does not afford for a private conversation. Most of their conversations revolve around their studies, lots of formulas and lab talk, steady and unenergized. Their conversations overlap, flowing from one table to the next in a very rhythmical way. You can always tell when a test is coming up, the talk is more lively and urgent, the tone along with the emotions heightens. Being able to understand the language does not hamper my experience, it offers  more detail to why the change in energy. There are definitely those students who are more organized and those who are stronger academically. They always have the problems worked out and seem to be able to comfort others with brief, concise explanations.  I value the insight of such conversations as well as the mood they set.