When will people learn to speak without saying "Umm?"

[thegamechanger]

I listen to youtube videos and podcasts and every other person says "umm" "umm" in every sentence, why is that? how come they cannot speak properly?? "umm!" are they slow in the brain? did they fail school? how can people go through life and not be able to complete a sentence without adding "umm" to it?
i find it even worse than "you know". if you cant open your mouth without adding "umm" and "you know" you shouldnt speak at all, youre basically a monkey.

look at the videopodcast with milos sarvec for example, the interviewer mark cole says "Umm" 9 times in the first 45 seconds! and thats an hour long show!
how the hell are you supposed to be able to listen to that.

its like theyre so braindead they have to paus themselves and search the brain like it's a slow harddrive and while the brain is spinning the "umm" noise comes like a harddrive sound.

[da_vinci]

umm... I think no.

[Papper]

It's a sign of poor intellect and a sub standard brain

[_aj_]

Early in my career, I had to give a 90 minute tech talk at a developer conference. I knew it was going to be well attended because it was a popular subject (performance tuning web servers). When I got there it was 6500 people in the hall. Gulp.

I had gotten some advice from a friend to take a deep breath if I wanted to say "umm". I started my talk by telling that to the audience and said I had a better idea: every time I say "umm", they should clap. Let's just say that there was much applause that day. But I laughed a lot and got through it fine.

Edited to be bb related: after the talk, a young woman in the audience introduced herself and came on to me like a train. She was a full-time coder and part time personal trainer in NYC and her body was BANGING. We fucked that night and had a sort of thing for a few months. She liked my "muscular arms" which were MAYBE 16" back then.

[gracie bjj]

i think its better to say (well) if u need a second to think,it sounds more professional imo

[muscleman-2013]

I listen to youtube videos and podcasts and every other person says "umm" "umm" in every sentence, why is that? how come they cannot speak properly??

Why are you watching and listening to these individuals?   Are they from your social stratum?

[Man of Steel]

If you're prepared to speak you reduce the "umms" automatically.

Speaking off the cuff the potential increases.....that umm moment gives you a pause to think.  Takes practice to avoid filling those brief moments with the umms.

[Novena]

Visualize a “mute led” in your head.  When you are thinking  and are prone to make “space marking” sounds like; “ummmm”, “you know”, or “like”, visualize the mute led lighting,  and you engage your “vocal clutch” and concentrate on not  vocalizing  the space markers.

[Man of Steel]

Visualize a “mute led” in your head.  When you are thinking  and are prone to make “space marking” sounds like; “ummmm”, “you know”, or “like”, visualize the mute led lighting,  and you engage your “vocal clutch” and concentrate on not  vocalizing  the space markers.

exactly.....fill those moments of pause (used to think or transition) with silence....takes practice

[polychronopolous]

It's a sign of poor intellect and a sub standard brain

Jerry Jones says it practically every other word and he's a multi billionaire.

[_bruce_]

It probably related to how gifted you are as a speaker - automatically extracting, rearranging, rephrasing the things you're about to say. Some people have the pipeline filled while there mouth is going off, others get a bubble/stall and produce an ummm while their brains reworking the "precious" knowledge they're about to unleash.
At least this is how Pentium people behave.

[FermiDirac]

It's a patriarchal opression, men use it to keep the word even when not saying anything. Cisgendered man pig bigots 

[muscleman-2013]

I heard it is a tool of racial oppression used by the white devil.

[da_vinci]

Early in my career, I had to give a 90 minute tech talk at a developer conference. I knew it was going to be well attended because it was a popular subject (performance tuning web servers). When I got there it was 6500 people in the hall. Gulp.

I had gotten some advice from a friend to take a deep breath if I wanted to say "umm". I started my talk by telling that to the audience and said I had a better idea: every time I say "umm", they should clap. Let's just say that there was much applause that day. But I laughed a lot and got through it fine.

Edited to be bb related: after the talk, a young woman in the audience introduced herself and came on to me like a train. She was a full-time coder and part time personal trainer in NYC and her body was BANGING. We fucked that night and had a sort of thing for a few months. She liked my "muscular arms" which were MAYBE 16" back then.

What exactly are you doing in the web field currently? (just curious. I'm a dev myself.).
To make it bb related: don't you get weird reactions when people assume you are a bouncer and it turns out you are a pc geek. I get.

[_aj_]

What exactly are you doing in the web field currently? (just curious. I'm a dev myself.).
To make it bb related: don't you get weird reactions when people assume you are a bouncer and it turns out you are a pc geek. I get.

Back in the day, I was working for a recently acquired subsidiary of IBM and working on the what-would-someday-be the Apache web server. It was gnarly C code, but it was great yimes to be in the biz.

Currently, I am VP Engineering/CTO/Chief Architect of a midsized SaaS company in the Boston area. I know we all say this, but it is actually true.

And yes, it was always a very pleasant surprise for women to find out that there was a brain atop this body.

[da_vinci]

Back in the day, I was working for a recently acquired subsidiary of IBM and working on the what-would-someday-be the Apache web server. It was gnarly C code, but it was great yimes to be in the biz.

Currently, I am VP Engineering/CTO/Chief Architect of a midsized SaaS company in the Boston area. I know we all say this, but it is actually true.

And yes, it was always a very pleasant surprise for women to find out that there was a brain atop this body.

Interesting and well accomplished career, props.

[_aj_]

Interesting and well accomplished career, props.

I still have CEO to go. It's in my 10 year plan. Technically, I am about 5 years ahead of plan, so I am looking good.

[Tapeworm]

Imho just speak naturally unless you're a hardcore um abuser.  Tie & collar guys seem to favor the silent pause thing and, gotta say, it's really offputting, and quick.  

Conversation should flow.  Everyone gets to feel at ease.  No one gets the sense that someone is mistrustful or picking his words carefully for a reason.  Talking absolute shit with a smile is preferable to opting for a conversational manner that will put the other guy on guard.

I used to contract to an English guy who would do the pause & clause thing.  I got the sense he read it in a book about how to make people hang on your next word.  It was like discussing a project with William Shatner.  By the end I was so tempted to just shove my end to his sentence into the giant conversational vaginas he kept hanging out there.

[muscleman-2013]

Imho just speak naturally unless you're a hardcore um abuser.  Tie & collar guys seem to favor the silent pause thing and, gotta say, it's really offputting, and quick.  

Conversation should flow.  Everyone gets to feel at ease.  No one gets the sense that someone is mistrustful or picking his words carefully for a reason.  Talking absolute shit with a smile is preferable to opting for a conversational manner that will put the other guy on guard.

I used to contract to an English guy who would do the pause & clause thing.  I got the sense he read it in a book about how to make people hang on your next word.  It was like discussing a project with William Shatner.  By the end I was so tempted to just shove my end to his sentence into the giant conversational vaginas he kept hanging out there.

umm umm umm umm is painful and annoying, simple as that.  nothing to do with being a natural conversationalist or speaker.

[thegamechanger]

[Tapeworm]

umm umm umm umm is painful and annoying, simple as that.  nothing to do with being a natural conversationalist or speaker.

Well now that's simply not true.  Witnessing the flow of someone's consciousness as it happens is like watching the birth of the universe unfold.

[Tom]

around the same time when they stop using "you know" between every sentence....and when others learn to stop peppering their meaningful intelligent discussions with the "F" bomb every other word to REALLY get their point across....

[FermiDirac]

around the same time when they stop using "you know" between every sentence....and when others learn to stop peppering their meaningful intelligent discussions with the "F" bomb every other word to REALLY get their point across....

"You know... it's like when you fucking build a fucking superconductor you have to ... uhm.... watch that fucking Meissner effect you know, if you don't then your calculations will be pretty fucking off due to negligence in the fucking model, you know?"

Works pretty good



I usually instantly take a dislike to people who curse and use a lot of profanities in their everyday conversations. It's a rude and obtuse way of speaking to other people, on top of being disrespectful. I find it repulsive and disruptive. 
Then of course, they themselves probably find it cool and learnt it from their parents.

[Dokey111]

It is actually a sign of intelligence.  Go and watch the "You err me" video if you don't believe me.

[Tapeworm]

This is an emergency broadcast.  

There was a lingustic pandemic.  Some say it started with a cop who was afflicted with a peculiar formality and an inexplicable 'at the current time' compulsion.  Other folks say it came out of the west as a virulent mutation of the Valley Virus and swept across the nation.  

We know this: We're still here.  We've received messages from other survivors.  Please respond if you are receiving and are still able to transmit.