Quietness and Privacy and Silences

I think as a quiet, introverted Chinese American woman, there's always that moment when I'm in any encounter where I wonder whether the other person thinks that, you know, I don't speak English. And at the end, especially, it becomes unknown, I want to be understood and to declare and to risk intimacy as a person wants to be in the world among others. It could be the silence of awe, it could be the Silence of intimacy, but it could also be silence of contention or hesitation or doubt. That's something I'm really fascinated by in thinking about quietness and privacy and silences.