What I Hear

My soundwalk took place shortly after sunset on a very cold, windy, and damp night. Much of the excitement in Bensonhurst has ended by now, as most of the residents are young families or elderly. I most enjoy the neighborhood at this hour, so I decided this would be the best time to take a walk. The first sound I notice after going outside is the sound of a store closing. It's a familiar sound, the noise of the doors on the corner fish shop shutting for the day. As I round the corner I hear the distant keynote sound of the subway train rolling to a stop.

A few sound signals I picked up on during my walk included banter among Chinese chefs on their smoke break. Although I was unable to understand them, the aggressiveness of their voices certainly caught my attention. Another sound signal I found was the high pitched barking of two Shi-Tzus, which, dare I say, sounded similar to noises I hear when I watch reality TV. As I got closer to the train station, the sound of the train went from being a keynote sound to a soundmark. Walking under the above ground tracks, I could hear the voice announcing the next stop and the "ding" of the doors closing. I think the sound of the overhead train is pretty unique to Bensonhurst, as I was unfamiliar with this nearly deafening noise before I lived here.

Continuing up the street I picked up on something I normally don't when wearing my headphones (which I'm guilty of doing almost 24/7), which is language. Bensonhurst is an extremely diverse place--take a walk in the neighborhood on any given day and you'll feel as though you've just walked through five different countries. In the span of my walk I hear parents speaking to their toddler in Russian, I hear Spanish being spoken outside of a bodega, I hear Mandarin, I hear Hebrew, and finally upon returning home I hear my landlord bickering with a neighbor in Italian. This diversity in language I would say is the number one sound clue to this specific neighborhood. But then again, we're in New York, so maybe all neighborhoods are this way and I'm just blindly unaware. I think that's also just the beauty of the city, being able to experience this audial melting pot. I'm happy I took the walk because it gave me an appreciation for the sounds of my neighborhood, something that I don't get to experience when I'm plugged in.