Uh… what do I blog about today. Um… I’m thinking. Thank goodness there’s no sound in this blog so you don’t have to hear “uh” and “um.” People do notice when a speaker uses those crutch sounds to cover up the silence or collecting your thoughts. Even my daughter who was about 9 or 10 at the time complimented by ability to avoid those filler sounds.
I was fortunate to learn to cut out fillers when I was a kid. I liked 7th grade public speaking class so much that I took it again in high school and college. One of my college internships involved teaching public speaking to middle school students.
How to Lose the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ from Your Speech uses one technique and apparently it worked within a year. I advise my kids to keep their mouths closed until they come up with the next thought — it’s OK to have silence. No one dies from silence.
I avoid telling my kids, “Don’t say ‘um'” because then it gets in their heads and they start saying it. Just like the story I vaguely recall when a comedian told another person not to mention something to the queen, and of course, the person did. Tried to find the story, but no luck. Thought it was George Burns or Jack Benny. [ Link: Esoterica ]
