School’s over for today, time to take the MRT home. With me was a friend, who is just slightly skinnier and taller than myself. One thing I like abt walking wif him and dat particular group of friends is how nobody is exceptionally tall or short. Sounds like a trivial matter, but if you’ve been around giant ppl who are like ~190cm, you’ll noe dat sometimes, it gets a lil hard to hear and talk to each other, which makes things quite awkward.
So we boarded the train, and were followed by some other people. Then a bunch of other dudes boarded the train, and suddenly we’re being crammed tighter than my grip to the pole, which was keeping me from awkwardly bumping into others as the train moves. Its like 4:30pm, so its abit of an unusual time to be this crowded. But its alrite, I guess, we’re used to it.
Immediately as the train door closed, my friend points out, among the sea of people, the very loud man on his phone behind us. He seemed to be in his late 30s at least. In his incomprehensible Mandarin, he spoke loud enough for the whole cabin, and likely beyond, to hear. He was an exceptionally expressive speaker as well, even making jarring sound effects every now and then, like BOING BOING and YAAAAA. So now we have wif us this slightly socially unaware man, calling his friend in a very cartoonish tone, it seems. Hmmmm, yea, not exactly the most ideal conditions for a train ride home…
Anyways my friend, being the civilised young gentleman he is, wondered if he shld go and punch the loud man in the face. Fortunately, he was being held back by his moral conscience. I’d say I was proud of him for not doing so, but nah, I think dats like the bare minimum expected. So my friend just resorted to ignoring him…. occasionally wif a few mean comments…. and a few more comments after dat…. but otherwise, pretty tame.
But it was amusing to witness dat trying to disregard the loud man was a common action among commuters in that cabin. It seemed like some kinda taboo. Everyone’s consciously trying to avoid looking at him, by staring at phones or facing the other way. I’m sure we all noe wat dats like. And hey, u can’t blame us, it’s just not in our nature to be confrontational…
As a matter of fact, I’ve never actually seen a loud speaking person get confronted for their actions before. Sometimes, I feel I should be the one doing it, but then comes the thoughts of the following uncertainties:
1. What if the person doesn’t speak English
2. What if the person is aggressive
3. What if the person is deaf
Any of the above wld make things pretty uncomfortable, in the painfully awkward sorta way, and not just for you, but for everyone around dats witnessing. Then if things happen to escalate between them and yourself, you might suddenly find yourself trending on TikTok the next day….
Though there are the rare ones among us, dat are actly brave enuf to confront them, for everyone’s sake. They are true heroes. They risk the awkwardness to provide a better train-taking experience for everyone. As long as it’s justified and they’re doing it properly, then their actions are worthy of respect, regardless of how the person they’re dealing wif reacts. Their actions might get them labelled a kaypoh, but u noe deep down dat they’re just doing what’s right. They’re the cool guys and gals doing what most of us won’t ever do 💪
Yea, so if u wanna be a local hero, just for a short moment, u can always be the courageous one who ensures a quiet train experience for everyone. And even if ur just a quiet person, but you’re doing ur best to not be a burden by bothering others too much, then ur in a way, a low-key hero too 🫶
13.08.2025
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