The Universal Language of "Uhhhs"
What overused word that crowds my conscious and how do I deal with it?
“Uhhhhhhhhh”
What is an “uhh” you might be asking yourself? Well it's actually called a filler word. Something you use in place of your actually though. For me, “uhh” is probably my least favorite word. All it does is slow down my thought process and make me look like I don't know what I'm talking about. But, that's not what I want to discuss. I want to talk about how to deal with this “uhh” and how it is universal in all languages.
First off, I come from a long history of Polish heritage. We (my dad and I) always pester my mom with dumb questions like, “How do you say (x, y and z) in Polish?” What was originally a joke turned into a thought. How do you say uhh in different languages? The thought was interesting. In many separate languages people say “uhh” differently, yet it still has the same connotation. The word “uhh” is just one of the many filler words, but to me it feels like the most ingrained word in my head. Lucky I'm not alone in this filler word bonanza; with most resources saying that “uhhs”, “hmms” ,and “umms” being of the most commonly used fillers. At least in the English language. We must not leave out the other fillers; for example, the word “like” is considered the most popular filler in the teenage population.
What do we do?
Knowing what a filler word is really only half the battle. So, what do we do about these wretched words? I myself am not a professional speaker, but hopefully this regimen will help you on your journey to become more confident speaker.
Become Aware of your “Uhhhs”
Think of the words “ummm” or “like” as despicable words not to be said out loud. This mind set of acting like your talking about “you know who” trains your mind to use it less frequently. You can take it one step further and have an accountability partner to call you out on your fillers.
Take your time
This isn’t light work. Being able to retrain your brain to conjugate your thoughts differently is an overwhelming process. Working on your “Uhhs” not only retrains your brain—it also makes you more comfortable speaking. Which is the whole point of this exercise.
Practice
Going through the cycles repetitively is a sure fire way to learn a new skill. Maybe practicing in a mirror or in front of a video camera (like a normal person) is just a few of the many ways you can retain this new skill.
One of my internet friends told me that my videos would be much better if I stopped saying "Um." This was painful, but tremendously helpful. By which I mean it hurt my feelings for a while, but I got over it and realized he was right and decreased my usage of Um and improved my videos.
It's very interesting to read about Um in other languages. "basically," "I mean," "needless to say," "actually." Every language that I can think of has an "Um" according to Google except for !kung. I suspect it has an "um," but Google doesn't know what it is.
Yeah that pretty interesting. I've never heard of the language Kung! before.