The first cure that comes to mind is, unfortunately, unavailable: Mrs. Davis’ speech class, 1965. We got one point taken off our speech grade each time we said, “Uh,” or “Um.”
Bits of speech like “like” and “you know” weren’t very commong back then, but you can be sure she’d of torn a strip off us for those as well.
There was also an accelerating scale in her class. I don’t remember the trigger points, but after a certain number of these uhs and ums, the point value got doubled. And then doubled again. Didn’t take too many to give one an “F” for that particular speech.
Your guy needs a little bit of speech training. Maybe Toastmasters or something. I am quite surprised he didn’t get this in seminary. But help is out there, and it’s just a learned skill.
Snibbett from Mrs. Davis: "If you can’t think of the next word, be silent! Sometimes this will be misinterpreted as a pregnant pause for effect. Sometimes not. But silence is far, far, better than that horrid “Uh!!!”
It’s a learned skill. You don’t have to be talented to learn to avoid doing this and making your audience think you’re a real unedumacated stupe-ass.
