this is part of the reasons we have so many miscommunications:

The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently

is not silent, it is a speaking-
out-loud voice in your head: it is spoken,
a voice is saying it
as you read. It's the writer's words,
of course, in a literary sense
his or her "voice" but the sound
of that voice is the sound of your voice.
Not the sound your friends know
or the sound of a tape played back
but your voice
caught in the dark cathedral
of your skull, your voice heard
by an internal ear informed by internal abstracts
and what you know by feeling
having felt. It is your voice
saying, for example, the word "barn"
that the writer wrote
but the barn you know or knew. The voice
in your head, speaking as you read,
never says anything neutrally - some people
hated the barn they know
so you hear the word loaded
and a sensory constellation
is lit; horse-gnawed stalls,
hayloft, black heat tape wrapping
a water pipe, a slippery
spilled chirr of oats from a split sack,
the bony, filthy haunches of cows...
and "barn" is only a noun - no verb
or subject has entered into the sentence yet!
The voice you hear when you read to yourself
is the clearest voice: you speak it
speaking to you.
-- Thomas Lux

I like the fact that even simple nouns can be action verbs or adjectives because of their connotations. But as I prefaced, that may be why we get into misunderstandings. A simple word may trigger a whole different experience in another person. I think real friendship is when you start to understand (without speaking) that voice inside the other person's head. That can happen fairly quickly, but usually for words to trigger similar memories, you have to build a history together.

Of course, before you can begin understanding other people's internal voices, you have to begin with your own. Isn't it interesting that we have something like metacognition? That we can think about what and how we're thinking? That we may have 2 voices going on in our heads without being schizophrenic? Side note: I almost researched at a schizophrenic lab at stanford that was studying the physiology behind the disorder. Apparently, a few patients actually lacked a physical connection in their brain that linked the area that created our thoughts or our "voices" to the area of the brain that processed them and recognized them as our own. Therefore, they would have thoughts and think that these "voices" were coming from outside their heads. Even more fascinating is that at the onset of this disorder, the voices are very encouraging, very thoughtful, very positive. However, as time passes, the voices become increasingly negative and discouraging. That's why so many schizophrenics tend to be emotionally depressed as well.

But n-e-ways, it is a skill to really hear people. An even bigger challenge (for me) is to stop and hear God's voice.