Just got back from a debate. I was told that I say ‘um’ and ‘ah’ a lot. I already knew that.
Not good for someone who wants to be a preacher. Help?
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help?
in the past when i’ve given people talk feedback, they sometimes haven’t even realised that they are doing it.
so…
step 1 is knowing you do it.
once you’re conscious of it – you can easily get rid of it.
get an amigo to count for you each time and quickly enough you can shake it.
what was the debate?
Thanks for the advice. I was aware of the problem, but had forgotten that I had it.
The trick is getting people to count, eh? I’ll give it a shot. Any more magic mushrooms? (and by that I mean tricks)
It was an intercollege debate. We lost, topic was “Western countries should place sanctions on Russia”.
i think it’s related to trying to speak too fast.
so i used to write
“SPEAK SLOWLY” on the top of each page.
i haven’t had the um problem for years… if anything i sometimes speak too slowly!
hrmmm
today I was deliberately going slower than I normally try to. But maybe still too fast?
Debated again this evening, apparently I was better this time.
I didn’t try to speak slowly at all… but I did write my introduction out in full. (before transitioning to point-form)
Hayesy, do not be afraid to pause and arrange your words.
Notice how you never stutter or say ‘um’ when you’re reading from a page? When you’re ad libbing, or speaking from memory, get your whole sentence straight in your head (or at least the first half of it) before you open your mouth, so the first thing that comes out is a word and not an ‘ah’. It’s as if you’re reading it from a virtual page floating before your eyes, if you like.
Your audience will wait for you, within reason, because believe it or not they like to see you think as well as hear you speak. You can even build suspense.
Speaking slowly is good, working from a full set of notes in the early days of preaching is also good.
Thanks for the advice SmartLX – welcome back, too.
And thanks dave, good idea!
try filler phrases
e.g. ‘ladies and gentlemen’
hahaha I don’t know which would be more annoying…