I went to meet a customer who flew in from India yesterday. I sat at the hotel lobby, keeping my eyes peeled on the door, looking out for a large matured Indian lady. Aha, finally, I saw a plump lady waiting at the lobby.
I walked towards her, "Excuse me, are you Kavita?" She shook her head. Oops, wrong one.
Just then, a beautiful young lady walked towards me. Smiling and extending her hand, she said softly "I'm Kavita."
How can this petite and gentle lady with a sweet, demure smile be Kavita? Could this be the motor-mouth Kavita with the booming voice, the demanding customer who's always haggling over prices and asking for the impossible? I often imagine her to be a middle-aged lady with an evil smile whenever we spoke on the phone.
As it turns out, my perception is totally wrong this time.
This isn't the first time. Before I met my customer from Vietnam, I imagined him to be a large man in his 50s. We had business dealings for many years and when we finally set up a meeting in Singapore, I was expecting a much older man. To my surprise, a slim, young man in his early 30s appeared before me. "Are you Mr Hung's son?", I asked.
"No, I'm Hung.", he replied in his deep, manly voice. Ah, that's the unmistakable voice of Mr Hung alright.
My mom has a very young voice. Whenever she picks up the phone, she often hear people asking her, "Can I speak to your mommy?"
It is quite typical of us to form an opinion or impression of a person just by listening to the voice. When I was young, I was mesmerised by the voice of a particular radio DJ to the point of being obsessed with the faceless person. I imagined her to be very pretty, sweet and kind until I saw her face in the magazine one day. Call me shallow if you like, but my obsession for her vanished in one poof!
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11 comments:
Perception indeed!
My line of job demands that I set tight deadline for my vendors to follow according to customer requirements. Haha, I might sound too serious at times, I think. Quite a few times, when I actually get to meet my vendors, they would ask,"You are Karen? The manager? Haha ..."
Quite a few of my vendors "perceived" that I am in my fifties and a strict mother. No nonsense person. After they got to meet me, it's a very common remark to get, "Eh, your voice and face .. don't match leh!"
how funny...yeah it really is hard to match the voice and the face... very seldom do they ever match...but yeah there are always surprises when you finally meet the voice on the other end of the phone...!
haha, Karen. Wah, you sound like a strict discipline mistress in a convent school!
My best friend also gives a person this impression. Only I know how goofy she is :-)
JY - Yah, that's so true. Hmm, I wonder if you sound like what I imagine....
I've got a friend who is very plump... but who knows... the moment she starts to sing... everybody stops their step to listen :)
I remember a Toronto Bluejays (Baseball) pitcher from more than 10 years ago. Big black bald guy with the meanest piercing stare. He has a voice like Michael Jackson :-)
I know how that feels. I'm often on the receiving end of that. Most times when I make appointment to see a client for the first time over the phone and when I actually go for the appointment, the first words they would say are:
'You're not Chinese ah? But you really sound like a Chinese over the phone la!' LOL!
HE HE HE HE HE...People often think I'm a far older person when they speak to me on the phone. I HATE it when they think I'm my MOM on the phone. They just said hi and started talking as though they knew for sure that they were talking to my Mom. ARRRGGGHHHHHHH he he he...
lol....I do that too! I imagine faces to the voices I hear on the radio and over the phone. It's amazing what sort of stereo-types we can place on a voice. I do enjoy the surprise that comes from guessing and then seeing something completely different though. It makes life quite fun!
You know, I heard that Indian men LOVE fat women, so if Kavita is skinny, she must be very unpopular in India.
Maybe we should fix her up with a S'porean man? :)
Oh MH, you're too smart. That's exactly what she told Albert to do. Find her a Singapore man!! :-)
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