Can You Hear Me?

Derek joined his online English class a few minutes early, relieved that for once he was not scrambling to find the link. The teacher had asked every student to prepare a short account of their last holiday, to practise speaking in the past tense, and Derek had written and rewritten his several times. His camera worked, his materials were open on the screen, and he felt, for the first time in weeks, well prepared.

When his turn came, he began to read his opening sentence. The teacher watched him attentively but did not respond. A moment later another student pointed at the microphone icon at the bottom of Derek’s screen. It was red. However carefully he had rehearsed, nobody had heard a single word he had said, and he realised that he had been speaking into silence for almost half a minute.

He clicked the icon, but no matter how many times he clicked it, nothing changed. He felt embarrassed, even though nobody had laughed, particularly because he had put so much work into his answer. For a second he considered leaving the meeting altogether, but he decided against it and typed in the chat instead: “Sorry, my microphone isn’t working. I’m checking it now.” The teacher thanked him and moved on to another student while he looked for the fault.

Derek opened his browser settings and discovered that the website had never been given permission to use his microphone. He changed the setting, refreshed the page and rejoined the call. “Can you hear me now?” he asked, with some hesitation. Four of his classmates nodded vigorously, and the teacher smiled. Nothing more was said about it, which was exactly how he had hoped it would end.

He read his account more slowly than he had planned, partly to be certain that every verb was right. However badly the evening had started, it ended well: when he finished, the teacher commented that his past tenses had been clear and asked him a follow-up question. Derek realised that he had learnt two things that evening: how to change a browser permission, and how to explain a technical problem in English without panicking.