

The Other L-Word (2010) - stevewilhelm
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/01/hitchens-like-201001

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mahmud
Really?

[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/opinion/jerry-seinfeld-
rea...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/opinion/jerry-seinfeld-really-riffs-
about-something.html?pagewanted=print)

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emehrkay
One of the things that I loved about Toastmasters is that they designated
someone to be the "um grammarian." Their job was to count how many times you
used filler words or unnecessary pauses. Very frustrating at first, but damn
it really made me a better speaker. Because of that brief experience it is
kinda hard to listen to Obama talk sometimes, sometimes he has the MOST
unnecessary ummm and ahhhs.

~~~
kylebrown
So native english speakers avoid "ummm", but english learners should actually
make it a habit. Likewise, when learning a foreign language, native english
speakers should make a habit of adopting that language's filler words.
Especially because you will be using it so often while trying to remember
vocabularly.

For example, if you are learning spanish, use drawn out "pues" or "este..." to
interject your broken spanish and you will insantly sound more fluent. Not
"ummmm" which sticks out like a sore thumb to native spanish speakers. Chinese
speakers learning english will sound better using "ummm" instead of
"aaaahhhh". And german speakers instead of "zee...". I'm not sure how to
phoneticize the Indian filler sound (anyone? :)

Point is, as a foreign learner, the quicker you can adopt the native filler
the better you will sound, because you will be using it quite often.

~~~
emehrkay
Great points; a couple of things that I've never thought about.

