Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Clarity Act

Often, in a serious discussion or conversation such as during class, I trail off what I'm saying without properly finishing my thought and end with a convenient "Do you know what I mean?", shoving the burden on the instructor or whoever to interpret what they just heard and respond to it. Usually, it works.

Today though, I opened my mouth in the legal research 'small group' session, and spewed out a bunch of incoherent half sentences interpersed with "um"s, "er"s and "ah"s and a couple of uncomfortable silences. Finally gave up and apologized for not making any sense. Strangely, I didn't feel too embarrassed or anything. Someone told me after class they needed the good laugh they got out of watching me make a fool of myself. It happens to the best of us, right?

6 comments:

Abu Adam said...

right

Anonymous said...

A fitting title. ;-)

Ozair said...

It definitely happens to the best of us, but only a few will admit it, kudos to you.

I was giving a talk yesterday at work today when I realized in every sentence I would use the word "probably" or "maybe", which would be an indication that I am uncertain about what I am talking about. However, that was not the case, it is just a bad habit.

No one in my class corrected me, but I should probably try to correct myself.

Bilal Shirazi said...

Ummmm.. like whatever okay!

Anonymous said...

owch, I hope their tone and expression made up for their words.

At least they were listening to what you had to say.

Ali said...

Ha ha - the person who said it was a friend of mine. It wasn't meant to be hurtful. I guess I didn't make that clear in the post.

3L, that seems like a long time and lots of work away.

Ahlan wa sahlan feeki.