Mumble Test

The Mumble Test is a language skills test used to evaluate language proficiency for language students and potential interpreters. Basically the idea is that the person being evaluated is supposed to decipher important information from some kind of bad audio, something with noise in the background, distortion, some kind of sonic effect that usually one would prefer to eliminate.


RantWoman thought of the mumble test Monday night trying to ride Link during the rush hour derailment. The regular, played all the time announcements are all clearly enunciated and pleasant to listen to--even when the cycle sometimes gets out of sync with the station the train is passing through. The various ad hoc announcements broadcast while RantWoman waited for her train were all pure mumble test.


RantWoman was riding Link to avoid rain. Well, RantWoman left her abode, thought of the bus. Then RantWoman decided she would get equally wet either walking or waiting for the bus so she set off on foot. RantWoman was not the least bit surprised when the bus passed her halfway between the next stops. RantWoman had further pedestrian delights in the form of a flood of runoff as she tried to cross the street. Next, RantWoman almost gave up on the train: it literally came as the elevator arrived so RantWoman could choose the more conventional bus route to her destination.

There were a couple more mumble test announcements as RantWoman's train made its way to downtown.RantWoman definitely noticed a spot with a lot of bright lights and people in dayglow jumpsuits working on the opposite tracks at one point, but RantWoman decided just to be glad her train was getting her where she needed to go.