Comments on: Um

By: hayesy

hayesy — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:27:16 +0000

hahaha I don’t know which would be more annoying…

By: steph

steph — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:14:07 +0000

try filler phrases
e.g. ‘ladies and gentlemen’

By: hayesy

hayesy — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:24:03 +0000

Thanks for the advice SmartLX – welcome back, too.
And thanks dave, good idea!

By: cafedave

cafedave — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:04:02 +0000

Speaking slowly is good, working from a full set of notes in the early days of preaching is also good.

By: SmartLX

SmartLX — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:12:28 +0000

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.

By: hayesy

hayesy — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:25:40 +0000

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)

By: hayesy

hayesy — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:46:41 +0000

hrmmm
today I was deliberately going slower than I normally try to. But maybe still too fast?

By: Dave Miers

Dave Miers — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:28:32 +0000

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!

By: hayesy

hayesy — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:19:41 +0000

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”.

By: Dave Miers

Dave Miers — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:11:53 +0000

what was the debate?

By: Dave Miers

Dave Miers — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:10:50 +0000

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.