Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

This is one of my favorite domestic sounds that I have heard every day for years, part of a daily ritual, and for me personally it is extremely meaningful. It sounds so very alive to me. I like hearing the sound of my cat crunch her food, whereas at least in the West, we have been conditioned to feel somewhat repulsed by the sounds of humans eating. For example, in some parts of the East people are often quite noisy when they eat, which was striking initially but now seems to be quite normal. It sounds like they are enjoying their meal, the sound of a happy eater, as opposed to the studied silent eating we are encouraged to practice in the West under the rubric of Good Manners. Some of this is no doubt related to the type of food that is being eaten, but even when people eat an inherently noisy food such as crisps, we try to minimize the volume. You can sense the differences in how eating is perceived in a culture by the differences in the sound of meals. I am not sure if my cat can recognize the sound, but there is causal relationship between me hearing the sound of her crunching her food and her hearing the sound of my keys jingling outside the door of the flat.