Eliminate verbal acne (read all 3 entries…)
Ummmmmm errrr you know what I mean? 4 years ago

I’m not terrible with this really, but it’s totally unecessary to have it at all. I hate when I say “uh” or “um” or “you know” or “like” or “I mean” when it isn’t called for, but I still do it.

If you pay attention to people as they speak, their speech is riddled with such instances. I’m very good at avoiding the additional preposition to the end of a sentence, Example: Lot’s of people say things such as: “Where do you live AT?” or “Where are you going TO?”

Many people say “know what I’m sayin’” That’s terrible. It serves no real purpose.

I would like to get to a point where everything that comes out of my mouth has a purpose. Even expletives serve a purpose if used properly. I can handle the clever use of a curse word.

In addition, I’d like to stop saying “yeah” instead of “yes”, “nope” instead of “no” and eliminate ending a sentence with “so” which makes a person appear uncomfortable with the conversation.

Anybody else have any good examples?



Comments:

(This comment was deleted.)

Whom

Whomever I choose. Whether they’ll understand it or not, correct it will be. mmmm yes.

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure. – Clarence Darrow

Great Plan!

As the sort of geek who has read the dictionary more than once, I highly applaud this goal! I think that verbal acne is a wonderful turn of phrase that I would love to see become completely unneeded. I don’t think we are striving for perfection here. You don’t have to sound like a snob to only use the words you mean when you speak. I’ve made it a point for years now to eliminate flotsom from my speach. Noone seems to even notice. Which is entirely the point! Toi be clear is to eliminate glaring errors and nonsense from the picture. No one should miss ‘ummm like ya know’. I would like to bid them a cheerful farewell! Maybe in my own bubble land….probably not in Atlanta or your local Gotham.

Thank you

It’s comforting to know that there is at least one small oasis in this vast desert that occupies a large region of our aural habitat.

Some people have a terrible habit of not taking measures to ensure that their face is not pasted with food as they eat, they don’t have a booger hanging out of their nose, or chew with their mouth open—they have developed self unawareness to a fault.

I do believe it’s entirely OK to be comfortable with who you are and don’t mind being yourself, as long as you are comfortable with people thinking that you are a poor-speaking sloppy-mouthed booger-nosed person that doesn’t care what people think. I would like to see if that person would be hired after a lunch interview.

Another soapbox rant

More than likely the interviewer would reach over and slurp the remaining tidbit from the face of the prospective employee and they would become fast friends. I don’t understand why it is difficult for people to constrain themselves to only speaking when they have something to say and only saying what they actually mean. Is it the endless quest for their 15 minutes of fame that they continue to crowd the spotlight blathering on about nonsense and peppering their speach with place-holders? I know they can’t be picking this up from studying the art of the filabuster on C-Span. In a desparate quest for ‘connectedness’ the cell phone has become a perpetual crutch. “S’up dude, what’cha doin? Cool…so whats goin’ on….” is echoed acrosss the country with alarming frequency. Not only do people have nothing to say, but it is essential that they determine that their acquaintances have no direction in their lives as well. Exit soapbox.

I like the way you talk

You are so right. “S’up” kills me. It speaks volumes. Some people have eliminated “i-n-g” from the end of words. “workin’”, “readin’”, “goin’”,”shoppin’”

I’ll let “chillin’” go because it would sound weird if you said “chilling”

I’m sure a guy could get beat up if his friend walked up to him and said “S’up dude? What’cha doin?” and his response was “I am chilling. I’m glad you asked. How are you doing today?” :)

“Doin’ great bro’, but now I got to kick your bookworm ass for talkin’ like a freak you nerd talkin’ mo’ fo’.

:)

I had to laugh outloud!

I think I know that mo’fo’. And really, if some one said that to me I’d tell them to put a sweater on. Or inquire if they were some type of aspic and would they be “set” soon? If there is a place of judgement after death and people were held accountable for what they said…..how many times would “I’m gonna kill you” come up? And really, “rocks” are a remainder of continental drift, not an adjective. The casualuizing of society is disturbing at best. I don’t care to know what my coworkers navels look like. I don’t think that even if adorned with a navel ring that a bare belly constitutes self expression. Then again….I rarely get as far as noticing peoples obvious panty lines…they lose me the moment they open their mouths. I’ll admit, I often spell badly and my punctuation leaves something to be desired. I also have a rather foolish haircut at the moment (through little fault of my own). But I am happy to be held accountable for how I present myself to the world. I’m not alone in my closet singing into a hairbrush. I don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy while speeding along a public highway picking my nose. Shall we dare utter the magic words? The veritable ‘open seasame’ to the public countenance? .......p-e-r-s-o-n-a-l R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-L-I-T-Y (but of course you didn’t here that from me. I’m pro tattletale and anti don’t ask, don’t tell. If you want the world to be a decent place then put down your nintendo and figure out how to act like a person (or dare I ask….a citizen!)

I had a friend who was a nerd and from the ghetto at the same time. He worked with me a short while and it was very interesting to listen to the difference when he was talking to me and when he was relating a conversation between him and his “bros”.

He was a “nerd talking mo’fo”. :)

(This comment was deleted.)

Good one Paolo

I’ve noticed that as well. The raised pitch at the end of a sentence is commonly reffered to as “up-talk”

Many young Americans and many Canadians are notorious for doing this.

Imagine these next words a young California Woman at an interview. As you are reading let each sentence end with that raised pitch except the last one which actually drops in pitch during on the last word.

I originally studied paleontology…..
But then I realized that I didn’t like all the digging through dirt and stuff…..
so I switched to history…it’s just like digging too but the dirt is only figurative…and I really think I’ll make a great teacher because the kids really relate to me…. and I really think I can get them interested too.

Thank you dear. We’ll let you know what our decision is.

Oh, you mean HRT!

(That’s High Rising Terminals, not Hormone Replacement Therapy!)

It’s become extremely common in many parts of the world, and you’re more likely to hear it in female speech than male.
There are a few theories as to why people do this – nervousness, as an effort to “retain the floor” in a conversation by making it seem as though you haven’t actually finished your sentence – but that doesn’t mean I have to like it! It really does make a difference to how intelligent you seem to others, especially when paired with frequent and unnecessary use of “like”.
I hate it on the rare occasion that I find myself showing either of these speech traits, but for the most part I seem to avoid them.

(This comment was deleted.)

Thanks

People like it but nobody has chosen it as a goal. I think it’s a rather fine goal even if it can’t be completed necessarily. Well perhaps one foolish speaker after the next.

where is the line?

between communicating in a way that makes you intelligeable to both the purists and the ‘normal’ people who don’t read their world that way? Don’t you risk sounding like a machine?

Sunday lunch in our house was the one time we tried not to use any of those well, ooh, um, words…we would be on the floor laughing, because it is impossible! Please try it with a bunch of other people and you’ll see how hard it is, and how funny!


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