The Value of Silence.

As a mostly introverted person, I really value silence. I feel uncomfortable with small talk, I’m not one of those people who feels the need to fill a silence. Australians tend to be loud and outgoing, which I am not. I really hate it when people who don’t know me will comment that I am ‘very quiet.’ No, I just feel the need to speak if I don’t have anything to say. Also, I’m not a quiet person, I’m just shy. There’s a difference! I think that shy people get overlooked a lot, people expect you to open up straight away otherwise they label you as boring. Growing up I was a bit of a doormat, never fighting for what I believed in. I’ve had to force myself not to be this way, even though it feels unnatural for me to speak up in a crowd. Recently while travelling in Japan, I noticed how much more valued silence is in their culture than in Australia. Nobody talks on public transport, and if they do it’s very hushed and polite. Speaking on your mobile phone is unheard of. There is a respect for everyone's right to silence, the opposite of Melbourne’s rowdy trains. I was told that Japanese people rarely say what they are thinking, particularly in formal settings like workplaces. The conversation often avoids being blunt and it can be hard to know what each other really want. After forcing myself to become used to being more open and saying what I think, I don’t think I could handle this. While Australians are often very blunt, trying to guess what everyone else is thinking would give me too much anxiety.