tune out

so i was in a coffee shop today trying to study some Japanese when a few foreigners came in. i pretended to be too engrossed in my studies to be friendly and social with them.... it's not that i hate other foreigners (what the hell is that phenomenon anyway? it's got to be some form of Stockholm Syndrome or something), it's just that i don't want to make that same awkward, stupid conversation that you're always forced to make (are you a student? what program are you with? where are you from? how long have you been here? how's your Japanese? you think you're SO fucking special in the words of Thom Yorke, don't you). so i avoid any kind of random foreigner contact at all costs. nothing personal.

but anyway the girl talking.... she had one of those voices that just carries, and i'm sure her conversation was immensely fascinating to the person she was talking to, but i just wanted her to shut the fuck up as soon as possible. while i'm doing my damndest to understand the language that's usually going on around me, i still have the luxury of tuning it out when i want to hear things but don't feel like listening. but the sound of random English is like an aural train wreck. particularly when the word "like" is spoken about 3 times per sentence.

i wonder if i sound that stupid when i'm talking. probably.