while i dearly wish my relatives would stop sending me multiple voice notes that say the same thing, this is the middle ground when one side can't read chinese (me)

preach. i had to ask multiple people to stop leaving voice messages in our activist group chats. i can read about ten times faster than someone can speak, and i don't want to listen to "um, ah, it's like, well, it's like..." for 15 seconds while they gather their thoughts. plus you can't skim back through a voice message if you forget part of what they said, you have to take a guess at where to seek to and then wait for them to get to the point again.

gather your thoughts, type them out in a text message, and you won't be wasting anyone's time.