'Like, literally I am so sorry that basically I actually can't right now. You know?'
Sound familiar? Yep that's because we all speak like this. Blame Gretchen Wieners or Cher from Clueless but today our sentences are littered with words to fill the gaps and, as a result, Audrey Mann Cronin, a tech consultant and parent blogger, has created an app to combat the way people are speaking.
TBH Audrey, I'm kind of OK with saying 'like' every five seconds. Everyone I know does it and it would probably sound more than a little weird if all of a sudden I started speaking like Little Lord Fauntleroy and saying stuff like 'bequeath'.
Audrey though, reckons that 'The excessive use of filler words to fill our pauses is contagious and pervasive – they weaken our speech, water down our meaning, distract our listener and make us sound unsure, and yes, maybe even incompetent. Whether you are giving a presentation, interviewing for a job or internship, meeting with a college recruiter, or just having a conversation, sounding self-assured and speaking articulately is paramount to being taken seriously.'
The LikeSo app, the brainchild of Audrey and a mysterious unamed partner is effectively a speech training tool. You practise speaking into your phone's microphone and the app will pick up pauses, slow speech and excessive use of the words it has highlighted as 'filler' words. These include 'actually', 'Ya know', 'totally', 'I mean', 'literally' and 'sorry' - to name but a few.
The app then gives you a score (I got 98%, what of it) and you try and score better next time.
The trouble is, speaking into your phone is oddly formal and, probably isn't a very good measure of your speech. To really find out how articulate you are, I'd suggest leaving it recording while you're speaking to your friend.
Download the app here and find out just how articulate you are.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.