“I’m Sorry. Can You Repeat That?”

I noticed, a couple of years ago, that I couldn’t understand some of the words people said to me on the phone, when I’d be interviewing them for an article, or on a sales call.

The volume of their voices was perfectly fine. and I’d got the gist of the conversations, but often a number of key words sounded jumbled. I’d brush it off, attributing it to the cell phone connection or the fact that they were talking too fast or mumbling. But even when I played the tape back, I couldn’t make out the same words, no matter how many times I replayed the sentence.

A Short, But Crucial,
Lesson In Hearing

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This Valentine’s Gift Will Guarantee You Understand Each Other Better

David and I went to our friends’ house last weekend, to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel before the Oscar Awards on February 22.

We haven’t watched a movie together with this couple in ages, and we thought the four of us would share a lovely evening. But unless they change their ways, it doesn’t look like we’re going to watch another movie with them anytime soon. Throughout the movie, both of them were taking turns asking what someone in the film said.

It went something like this:

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Hear Better Without Hearing Aids

Whether you’re 45 or 75, you could very well be part of the growing segment of the population that’s experiencing listening difficulty in certain situations.

Over 45% of US adults online struggle communicating in one or more listening situations, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. And that doesn’t mean they all need hearing aids, but it does mean that they might have a hard time hearing their dinner companions in a noisy restaurant, the dialog in their favorite TV show, or their partners while strolling in the park on a lovely spring day.

Listen to this short tape of Geri, FOFounder, talking to her friends
at a noisy restaurant. Then answer the five questions about
what she said, to help determine how well you hear.

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Is It Time For A Hearing Test?

Listen up!

You may be experiencing hearing loss without
realizing it.

The signs can be subtle, so take our easy quiz below (created with the help of Dr. Annette Zeman, of New York Hearing Doctors) to learn whether you need to “listen” to what your ears are trying to tell you.

Do you...

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If you checked off 3 or more of these signs, it’s time to make an appointment with an audiologist to have your ears checked. You could simply have wax buildup, but you’ll never know until a hearing specialist gets a good look. Unless, of course, you’d prefer to emulate your hard-of-hearing grandma, whose favorite word is “eh?”

NOTE: As we get older, some things just don’t work as well as they used to. Hearing is one of those things for many of us. “Age-related hearing loss can have many causes, but it’s most often due to changes in the inner ear, which is full of tiny cells covered in tiny hairs that help us to hear by converting sound waves into nerve signals that are interpreted as sounds in our brain,” according to Dr. Zeman. Aging can cause these cells to become damaged or die, which results in hearing loss. Family history; smoking; repeated exposure to loud noises; and certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, can each affect the quality of our hearing over time. Often, we may not notice any difference, but others do.