Vulgarians

If there is one thing that I have learned from living in and studying Eastern Europe, it is that it has suffered badly under communist rule. Life behind the Iron Curtain was spartan, and the political machines that ruled the region deprived many people many things in their lives. Only in the last fifteen years, after the fall of communism, have some of the things that people in the West accept as commonplace started to show up in Eastern Europe.

Sadly, there are still some things that people from that area don't enjoy. Here at my school in London, we have a large Bulgarian student contingent, and after spending a little time around them in the computer labs, I realize that there is one thing Communism took away from their people that they still have failed to reclaim: They have absolutely no "indoor voice."

You know that voice you use when you are in a very crowded bar or club that is playing incredibly loud music and you are trying to speak to someone across a table? The one where you are just short of shouting, but are instead talking in a very very loud voice? That is the voice that all the Bulgarian students use, even when sitting three feet away from someone in an otherwise silent computer lab.

So please, this Thanksgiving, while you are reflecting on all we have to give thanks for as Americans, pause and reflect about what life would be like if you couldn't talk in a normal tone of voice. Think of the discrimination you might suffer. Think about an American student who thinks of increasingly violent thoughts while in the computer lab next to these students. Think of one man who wants to visit savage beatings on these students while they yell about their soccer stars. And this Christmas, while shopping for the ones you love, please spare a few extra dollars to the Bulgarian Foundation for Normal Voiceology, which is desperately seeking a cure for this disorder.