Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn't understand a person because they were talking too fast? And when you asked them to repeat the sentence, they repeated it at the same speed? So you asked one more time and got the same result? By that point, you just awkwardly nodded, pretending that you got what they said...
I have this friend who talks a mile a minute. Way too fast. When we don't see each other for more than two weeks, I have to relearn how to understand him. And I've known him for ten years! In his case, I honestly think it's neurological. It's like he's physically unable to speak slowly. When he's asked to repeat the sentence, he just says it at the same speed or even faster, but twice, no matter if he's talking to family on the phone or to a cashier in the grocery store.
One of my aunts on my father's side also talks really fast, but in her case, I think it's a cultural thing. She's from Smolensk oblast, and people speak faster than usual there for some reason. I've heard that people from southern regions speak faster, but Smolensk isn't even that far south compared to where I live. Or maybe it's just my aunt. When I was younger, whenever I spoke too fast (I do that sometimes when I'm nervous), my mother used to tell me, "Your Smolensk roots are coming out!" Anyway, going back to my aunt, she really loves to talk, and when there's news about the family, she calls my mother, my cousin and my other aunt and rattles off the news at her usual breakneck speed. They'll ask her to slow down, and she will for a while, but then she gradually speeds back up. And after each one has spoken to her, they all try to piece together the full picture from whatever fragments of her lightning-fast speech each one of them was able to make out. It's funny, but also borderline insane. When we visit them, and my father and aunt talk to each other, they basically look like this: https://youtu.be/7TC5vCyny_U?t=20
I think this could be a problem in a language exchange situation. I remember trying to speak Russian to Uly once, and he couldn't understand me. I think it was because of how fast I was talking, but I also felt like I couldn't slow down. Now I wonder, is slower speech a skill you can train? What do you think?
Great post! I used to be considered the fast talker in my family, but I'm Margaret Thatcher compared to my niece (yes, BalaGi, the same niece who said you're a babe!). A few weeks ago, we went to see my father, who's in home hospice, and at one point he looked up from the bed in the middle of my niece telling a story and asked Is she speaking English? My father gave her a lecture: "People who talk too fast tend to say too much. A smart business person will see that as a weakness and just sit back and let you talk yourself into a hole." I agree with him. A few months ago, I actually tried to record a dialog with her for my YouTube channel and ended up recording both parts myself because her recording would've made my viewers think twice about learning English 😅
I don't understand half of people who talk to me because they all speak too fast for me.