Monday, March 16, 1998 at 20:18:05

Definitely an interesting topic. In Holland we once had a game on the radio in which we had to prevent ourselves from saying 'eh'. This was made more difficult by the host by asking unexpected and difficult to answer questions. I find it very difficult to converse without ever saying eh, especially when answering questions. However if you're doing this as a sort of contest or game you might try to answer singing! This is an easy way to prevetn yourself from saying eh. I wonder if this is of practical use but I surely found it amusing.

- EB

Another visitor to the FPRC told me of a similar game on radio in Detroit.  Is there something going on in radio I don't know about?  Actually, to be perfectly honest, I am always very impressed at how fluently many radio d.j.s are, despite the fact that they must be on the air continuously for several hours at a time with only an outline of the day's topics.  Pretty impressive.  As far as singing goes, I must confess that I can't quite understand how it prevents one from using FPs.  I'm sure for me, I would need to hesitate somehow just to think of a melody line to sing to. But even if I used a familiar melody line then I surely would hesitate (perhaps by drawing out a note past its normal duration) while thinking of a word.  It might prevent me from saying 'um' but I wonder if it would really prevent me from hesitating (which is the root of the problem...).

[ Previous ] [ Home ] [ Up ]