A few hums

[Iljitsch van Beijnum]

On woensdag, jul 23, 2003, at 08:45 Europe/Amsterdam, Pekka Savola 
wrote:

>> I think in many cases this is
>> exacerbated when people (try to) speak too fast. [...]

> Indeed.

> However, *I* at least don't have any problems with understanding fast
> speaking, *as long as* the speaker is a native speaker (or close 
> enough),
> i.e. can speak in a way I'm used to hear English spoken.  I'm not sure 
> how
> big a problem this is for most folks.

I don't know if people come to IETF meetings who find it difficult to 
follow English when it is spoken clear but fast. Speed in itself isn't 
a problem for me, as long as I get a few moments to let everything sink 
in before I'm required to react. However, speaking fast and still 
articulate well is something that is hard even for native speakers. And 
the people who speak the fastest usually use the most "uhm", "ahhh", 
"errr" and so on so it really doesn't help anyway.

> But when someone with e.g. a strong French or Japanese/Korean accent 
> tries
> to speak fast, then everyone is lost immediately..

Yes, this is often the case although there are also many people with 
accents that don't get in the way.