Analyzing Speech

More observation on human behavior – let’s talk about speech. Are you aware that we use a lot of unnecessary terms & phrases in our speech? Apart from the "la's" and "ma's", etc.

Here’s a random made-up story any random joe would be randomly telling a random friend…
“I went up to the gal and said ‘Hi’. And then she was like ‘who are you?’ It’s like I guess that’s because we’ve never met. I mean like it’s not like I had the guts to go up and speak to her before. You get what I mean? Actually it doesn’t bother me that much”

The following bits & pieces could have been omitted without changing the story one bit…
“I went up to the gal and said ‘Hi’. And then she was like totally blur. It’s like I guess that’s because we’ve never met. I mean like it’s not like I had the guts to go up and speak to her before. You get what I mean? Actually it doesn’t bother me that much.”

We Malaysians for some reason or other just like to go – “and then ar…” or “and then… and then… and then…”

And it’s like some of us have like this tendency to overuse the word “like”? Like I’m doing now. Hahaha.

And then arrhh… there’s also this strange habit of going “I guess…” even when we’re making a very factual statement and not really just ‘guessing’. I guess we just don’t want to come off too strong with our comments & ideas.

We also have this constant need to rephrase or elaborate on whatever we just said. I mean sometimes people might just misunderstand if we don’t put that extra effort in to rephrase or elaborate by using "I mean".

Oh, let’s not forget how some people overuse “frankly”, “actually”, “really”, “basically”... for whatever reason. I’m sure you’ve noticed.

Frankly/Basically/Actually/Really, these little traits in our speech make us unique.

Disclaimer: This post isn't to poke fun at anyone so please don't terasa. I'm quite the same!