Because I'm a hopeless fan I was listening to Dan Wheeler's pregame interview yesterday before the Stros game, my daughter counted Wheeler saying "ya know" 15 times within a 15-20 second interview. I say "like" alot and cringe when I tape myself at how it ruins good video. "Um" however may be the most annoying of all. Do you do any of these?
So, like, I... ummm... use these words a lot. Like, like, ya know? I, uh, really probably shouldn't, ya know, because, like, Britney does it and, like, no one really... ummm... respects her now, ya know? Like I'm so bad about it. But, ya know, they're useful words. Like, I mean, what are you supposed to say? (really, I'm not as bad about "ya know", but I use "like" a fair amount in casual conversation. I'm sometimes bad about losing attention and trailing off in mid-sentence, or using "ummm" while I try to remember what I was supposed to be saying. Unfortunately, the latter happens during my classes sometimes. Most students are OK with it, but occasionally someone whines about it. They should try having to lecture in front of people for a large part of every day.)
"Like" is the worst. And he was like, what? So I was like, yeah! And he was like, really? And I was like, yes!!! HOLY JESUS, that gets on my nerves.
About an hour ago, I interviewed a person for a job. She seemed to be fairly adequate for the job, but she got bad marks from me for using the terms "we wasn't", "he axed me", and "they axed me." For the position she's trying to get, in my opinion, those statements alone disqualified her. I've broken myself of the habit of saying "umm...". It wasn't too difficult - I just told myself, "It's better to just pause and be silent for a quarter-second than it is to say 'ummm'" That also helped me learn to speak more slowly (I'm a fast-talker by nature).
Damn that sounds like me. I keep on tellin myself afterwards that next time I would use something else like "such as" or "he said" something that sounds intelligent. But everytime i just slip bak into it.
This really annoyed me when I had a professor last semester who did this. She said "um" 87 times the third day of class, which lasted fifty minutes. I know. I counted.
I don't think there's a single person (me included) that properly says the word "asked". Black people tend to say "axed" and white people tend to say "assed"
"ya know" is the one that pisses me off the most. bryant reeves used to say it all the time in interviews...every other second at least. just sounds plain stupid. "like" also annoys me, but i haven't noticed it as much since being out of high school. "um" is probably the most common, and i probably use it, though it hasn't been pointed out to me. i think we (people in general) like to use up all the space, instead of just pausing and bringing together our thoughts. we'd rather make it sound like there's a string of speech...so we throw in sounds to fill in the gaps.
I had to take speach like everyone else in college and could not stand all the people that couldnt fix the "LIKE" and "YOU KNOW" disfluencies.. drives me up a wall..
okay...one other that pisses me off... "yo" used in ways other than a simple greeting. i don't mind people goin "yo, 'sup"...but when they say, "yo, man, we're going to the game yo, yo, it's gonna be awesome yo. like yo." i feel like "axing" them ..............................................."yo, why do you say 'yo' so much yo?"
Next time you hear an Ernie Els interview, pay attention to the "you knows" he says per answer. btw, Droxford, I pretty much lost my job today, maybe you can help me with my interviewing skills.
"knaw'm sayin?" that's the worst for me. yes, i KNOW what you're saying!! quit saying it over and over!
yo baby, you, like, want a ride, yo? sorry...you know that will haunt you for the rest of your BBS life, right?
I think it's a linguistic thing... it happens in Chinese all the time with "nei ge" “ߘ¢ Doh... lost the characters... hate that...
