Filler syllables. I hate them.
"Um..."
"Uh..."
"Ah..."
I hate hearing speakers use them, and even more, I hate hearing myself use them. It's a hard habit to break. However, this is emerging in a new way at my library. I recently noticed that several kids, including two I mentioned last year, are substituting it for a proper greeting.
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More appropriate ways to get someone's attention might be "excuse me," or, "pardon me," but kids these days [ahem, geezer's generalized grousing mode off] don't seem to be taught even the rudiments of etiquette. "Um" isn't how you open a conversation or start a sentence.
But at least it's not as obnoxious as The Girl Who Knocks. Then again, I haven't seen her in ages, and I occasionally wonder whether she's OK these days.
A podcast I listen to has guest speakers every week. Some of them are extremely articulate, and never once use fillers. Others use them frequently. Like you, I find fillers annoying, possibly even distracting. But I've been working on not letting that keep me from hearing what those folks have to say, because often it is just as significant as the messages coming from those who speak without the fillers.
Kids, on the other hand, who can't even open a conversation properly....now that's a whole different category of pathetic.
I can more easily forgive speakers for whom English is a second language, for example. But when a kid comes up to the library desk and just says a loud, "um," it vexes me.
Ummmmmm... I was just reminded of how I like the smell of public libraries.
Mine often smells like coffee!
OOooooo. I like that. I like how airports smell like coffee in the morning when it's the first flight. And I like that old paperback smell of libraries, it's kind of a cocoa smell. So you work in a mocha.
Um, ahhhh.. [ahem]. Uh, err....
Thanks!
Um... !PIZZA?
The girl who knocks?? I didn't go and read that post but I am assuming that she knocks on the counter trying to draw attention?? Laughs.
I do have to agree... Especially when giving some sort of speech and people are umming their way through it 😂😂
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