Sometimes I feel it difficult to here what others say.
I feel it often when I have conversation in English, as I find more difficulty in supplementing words from its context, I also recognize it even when I hear my native Japanese.
The main reason I think is I have been accustomed to loud sound because one of my family with whom I live is slightly hard of hearing and so he often listens to TV with turning the volume up.
However, I don't always ask others what they say and sometimes I am not sure whether I should ask or not.
The reason is that the counterpart of the conversation does not always want me to understand what s/he says and respond to it accordingly. Sometimes conversation is for building and defining relationship. Non-verbal message is much more important and it is out of place to track the exact meaning of what s/he says.
And often these two are mixed. The content matters so I have to ask what. But it often becomes awkward. I have to ask patience. And I also have to be patient when I talk with a person who have similar or even more serious problems.
