I can be in a very crowded Oxford Street (or any other similar location), and all the varied accents around me will simply wash over me, yet a Zild or Strine accent will perk up my internal radar at the drop of a blip.
Well this is very understandable– a naturalist visiting NYC heard a cricket while walking down Broadway– (inspite of cars and buses, and all sorts of NY noise) and his companion was stunned. The naturalist then did a quick test. He dropped coins – and watched peoples reactions. The large the denomination of the coin, the bigger the reaction (More people reacted to $0.25 than $0.01.)
He expressed that we are all creatures of our personal environment. City dwellers learn to react to the sound of a coin on concrete, and react more strongly when more is being lost (or potentially to be found). He was a naturalist– he had learned to react to sound of animals..
You are tuned to Zild and Strine accents... They are you're crickets.
