[notakio]

It has been illuminating for me over the past few weeks to have lost hearing in my right ear as a result of a lingering sinus infection; I understood that identifying the direction a sound might come from would be difficult with only one ear, but I had no idea how crucial it was for speech comprehension, particularly when any other noise is also present.

I've found that I can barely even discern that speech is present within a mix of noises, much less am I able to comprehend the speech until such time as I can reduce the other noises to a minimal level, and directionally point my ear at the source of said speech. Conference calls were quite a delight there for a while.