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Have you ever uh… had one of those days when uh… your brain isn’t working as fast as like… your brain? Turns out that’s normal! However, it can be a distracting habit. This week, we examine why we use these “filler words” and how we can train ourselves to use them less often.
After listening to several episodes of the show, we realized that we have a problem. We use filler words way too often! You know what we’re talking about. Um, like, ya know, uh, so… These are all words that don’t add anything to the dialogue, but we put them in anyway. It was interesting to look into why we do this… and it turns out all languages do it!
Hopefully, we can start to use some of the tactics we learned about this week so that we stop using these words so often! We hope you find this week’s episode uh… ya know… like… entertaining!
Sources:
- FluentU – 15+ Quick English Filler Words You’ll Thank Yourself for Learning
- Harvard University – Tips on Public Speaking: Eliminating the Dreaded “Um”
- NY Times – So, Um, How Do You, Like, Stop Using Filler Words?
- Business Insider – The psychological reasons why we use filler words like ‘um’ and ‘you know’ in conversations
- Quartz – Um, here’s an, uh, map that shows where Americans use “um” vs. “uh”
- Journal of Language and Psychology – Filler Word Use as a Function of Age, Gender, and Personality
- New York Times – Follow My Logic? A Connective Word Takes the Lead
- Real Clear Science – Ummmm… Here are Seven Facts You… uh… May Have Not Known About ‘Um’ and ‘Uh’
- Columbia University / Elsevier – Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking
- University of Georgia – Some Linguistic Signs of Ketamine-Induced Cognitive Impairment
- University of Pennsylvania – On Gender Differences in the Distribution of um and uh
- Toastmasters International – Cutting Out Filler Words