Within and out of earshot

 

Always leaving my chemistry lab open, which houses my small office to the immediate right, as one enters, I do not hear the soft-soled shoes' footsteps approaching. Placing a countertop service bell next to the entrance with a color chart of the levels of common sounds, thinking it would interest faculty, staff, students and visitors and prompt them to tap it before marching in would cancel my startled surprises. Additionally, perhaps it would clue in everyone that my hearing was not up to par, and the bell toll, so to speak, would get this older employee's attention.

A most recent auditory appointment at a veterans medical center confirmed that both eardrums (tympanic membranes) endured scarred healing, and the left ear recorded 16 percent loss and the right ear 12 percent loss. That's mild or moderate loss, as I can still hear leaves rustle (20 dB or decibels) in the wind but no longer hear a pin drop (10 dB). In contrast, conversational speech rings out at 60 dB. I'm not yet in need of a hearing aid and hope never to be. There are advantages for the device, aside from aiding hard-of-hearing individuals, such as keeping the incoming volume of noise pollution de-amplified. A prolonged sound of silence would not torture me.

Within a soundproof room, the audiologist technician showed me the instrument used in measuring acuity of hearing, an audiometer. She explained that when hearing four beeps, press the handheld button apparatus, analogous to clicking a computer mouse. The beeps were administered at different intensity levels and were, to my perception, like the chirping of birds.

The Speech Reception Threshold test for each ear is to determine the minimal loudness at which you begin to recognize speech. We just simply repeat familiar compound words like baseball, hotdog, airplane, football, popcorn, etc., when we hear them. Your score is expressed in decibels and represents the softest sound level at which you can correctly repeat 50% of the words. In audiologist jargon, these words are called "spondee" words that have equal stress on each syllable. Of course, the same test would be given with familiar compound words in your native language. However, I feel that most Korean students know these English two-syllable words.

The Word Recognition test for each ear is to determine how well you hear and understand speech when the volume is set at your most comfortable level. A series of single-syllable words like day, high, you, sea, air, book, cat, etc. are played, and you simply repeat what you think you hear. Fifty percent correct repeats indicate you will communicate without difficulty. Less than that means your word discrimination and recognition are very poor, and you will have significant trouble following a conversation. If your score falls below 40 percent, you may require a surgical procedure.

There's very much more to the story of hearing impairment diagnostics and remedies, which signifies exactly why we must have specialists on the medical scene.

At any rate, if worst comes to worst, present-day technology guarantees I won't have to walk around carrying a 17th-or-18th-century ear trumpet!

The author (wrjones@vsu.edu) published the novella “Beyond Harvard” and teaches English as a second language.