Susan Cain; Quiet

I’ve been wanting to read this book, I first heard about Susan Cain from TEDTalks. A modest, soft-spoken lady about in her late 30s talks about an individual who doesn’t speak much. This subject matter may not be appealing for some people but throughout your school life up until now, you must have experience there are always a group of people who don’t really talk much, timid, shy and there is the opposite, talkative, energetic, bold and gallant. It’s one of those who can come out a joke instantaneously when they first meet you. 

When I was a kid, my father once asked me; why are you don’t talk much? Well, I left that question unanswered. I don’t know what is happening to me back then, even the word “Introvert” isn’t in my native language, that is one thing that fascinates me about languages, Sapir Whorf theory has an idea that language is not simply means of communication but embedded in the language is a worldview. It is fair to say each of race and culture has their own interpretation of how to perceive the world?

I remember vividly when I was in primary school. My classroom teacher asked us to do some kind of personality quiz. Most of the question are ordinary, “what is your ambition?”; “what car you want to own?”;” What is your favorite subject”; and the last question that made the whole class bursting with laughter with my answers, “Where is your favorite place/spot”, some of my classmates answered; sports complex! cinema! shopping mall! I got lucky when my teacher picked my paper to read it to the whole class, Let’s skip to the last question, one of my answers was “I like a quiet place”. Seems like they didn’t get the idea. Hmm, what an odd answer from 12 years old.

In this book, she delved deep in the phenomenon of introversion and extroversion. In one section of she shares her stories how she first started working at the law firm, it made me get a flashback on my first day at work, the first ring on my desk phone, It felt like my heart skipped a beat. I chuckled at Susan’s first day at Public Speaking class, the trainer asked her to get to the podium and introduce herself, and she did exactly that. “HELLOOO!!!!” she shouted, hoping to sound dynamic. Charles, the public speaking trainer looked alarmed. “Just be yourself,” he said. At the end of her session, she did it really well. In the second part of this post, I would share some interesting facts, statistics, and research that has left a footprint on me as well as help to extend my thoughts.