Talking slower

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I know this may sound odd but I think I talk too quick and it makes me sound nervous and unclear. Also I have a habit of blurting everything out all at once because of the fear of being interrupted, but I don't think talking that fast does me much justice.

I have a friend who may be on the spectrum (she has something that affects her social behaviour anyway) and she has speech delays aswell, always has done, and she's in her 30s. She doesn't stutter or miss her ''S'', she just talks slower than average and has trouble pronouncing some words with too many syllables and she merges two words together when talking, a lot of the time. But even though she speaks rather slow, she still gets listened to more than me and doesn't sound so nervous, even though she's shy like me and socially awkward too. So I was wondering if perhaps if I worked on my speech by making myself talk a little slower, I might feel more better than always talking fast? Also I feel that talking slower can give you a chance to think before you say each word, rather than trying to spit it out all at once.

Does anyone else agree? Or does this sound stupid?

I have two modes: talking slow and talking fast.

I talk fast when I have said before the things that I am saying now. The sentences are ready-baked, so I spit them out as fast as possible.

I talk slow when I have to bake the sentences in real-time. Before I figured out how to bake the sentences in real-time, I used scripts that made no sense to anyone. Now, I sometimes talk slow, but most things that I say are spontaneous communications instead of meaningless scripts.

I can only speak for myself, but I've ALWAYS been a slow talker! Everyone I know knows it's me before they even look up- that's how different my voice is!

I'm a fast talker too, and even though I've been trying to reduce the speed numerous times, it seem like my brain forgets when stressed, as in a social situation.

I guess that I have to repeat myself at least 30% of the time, and that stresses me so much, that I'm even talking faster.

Most people doesn't seem to be that annoyed about it, but on the other hand, maybe I just can't read their bodylanguage.

I agree with you, that talking slower probably makes you sound less nervous and more confident. I also think it will be easier to emulate NT's.

NT's are REALLY good at blowing our cover. No need to make it too easy...

I tend to talk very fast when I'm excited or nervous, but I think it can freak people out who talk at a "normal" speed. Talking slowly may bore and irritate people, so maybe trying to develop level in between slow and fast is probably a good idea.

I used to have the problem that you have and still do when I start to talk faster. I took speech therapy when I was younger and they basically taught me to slow down my speech. It gives you an extra second to think about the word you are about to say and to pronounce it properly.

I had a friend I had to speak quickly too because he was always on the run. He made you feel you might be wasting his time so you had no choice but to get your words out as quickly as possible. Yeah. He was the only one I stuttered around because I had to speak talk with him, otherwise I can slow down.

I really need to start talking slower. I think I have the same problem as you do. I talk way to fast and I start stumbling over my words and stuttering. It doesn't help that I have a slight lisp and a weird voice as well. I always forget to talk slower though. I remember in school I used to do presentations and I'd talk way too fast.

I have times where I talk extremely fast or slow, but it's more of a "foreigner-trying-to-learn-English" kind of slow.

Definitely me. I wouldn't worry too much about it, most people just want to hear their own positions confirmed & ignore the rest, anyway.

I don't talk really fast, but I think I talk too fast for my own good. I know a woman who's not on the spectrum but she suffer with her nerves and is always trying to do things 100 percent right in her job because of the fear of being told off, and she talks really fast aswell. She is more confident than me so she obviously gets listened to more, but somebody commented on the way she talks and reckons she puts other people on edge too because of the way she talks and darts quickly from one task to another. I'm not like that, and I don't speak in the same way as she does, but I feel I still speak too fast for what I should be speaking. When I hear people talking, they sometimes pause between sentences, whereas I don't pause anywhere and just let all out in one blurt, then I end up somewhere where I am stuttering because I've threw all the words out so fast that I know I need to say more but can't think of what more to say, so I end conversations abruptly. I should just relax, take some short breaths between sentences, and I bet I will be listened to much quicker. I am starting to try it, starting now.

Obviously I don't mean I'm going to go the extreme and talk extremely slow, like ''I (5 seconds) want (5 seconds) to (5 seconds) do......'' I just want to speak at a more normal rate. I know someone people speak faster than me, but those are the confident people who seem to know exactly what to say without thinking. Quieter people like myself need to slow down a bit so I can sound more clear.

I talk kinda slow, and yeah as far as I tell I cannot talk faster.....so i don't know if someone who generally talks faster can talk slower. But yeah thing with being more slow is sometimes people think you're done when you're not so they might interrupt or some people might flat out get bored.

I talk fast.

People who talk super slow irritate me. Spit it out!!

People talking overly fast is also annoying.

Maybe practice a normal speed of speech? Too fast and too slow are both annoying and harder for people to understand.

I talk slow, I think slow, I move slow, sometimes I believe I hear slow.

Always have, always will.

I've been told that when I talk I make random pauses, and that I sound like I'm concentrating on what I say.

If I'm reading something out loud I can do it very fast though.

I always talk fast. I was able to talk fairly clearly until I had a major mouth injury last year.