Monday, March 25, 2013

5 minutes on stuttering: Cultural Differences or not?


I am still not happy with the final product. It is much more difficult to speak unprepared without being able to go back and correct your English or fine-tune your message. I am also wondering if the 5 minutes should really be about how to deal with stuttering, and the more science part should be left to the written word.

And apologies to Einar again for mispronouncing his name... I am as bad as Peter Reitzes pronouncing mine! ;-)

6 comments:

Jerome said...

I would say: stick to sharing your opinions on how to deal with stuttering. The scientific stuff is indeed better left to the written word.

Einar said...

Thanks for the reply Tom! I think digging deeper into the cultural dimension could be interesting. For instance there seem to be fewer stuttering self-help organisation in the south of Europe than in the North. Is that because people stutter less in the south or is stuttering there maybe more of a taboo and less acceptable? Also the historical perspective could be interesting, I'm sure that stuttering was less important in pre-media times or in a agricultural society where one's physical work was more important than one's spoken word... Also would be interesting to know what indigenous cultures make of stuttering, how would a stuttering child be treated within an indian tribe in the Amazonas? Were stuttering people in the middle ages maybe considered cursed and burned as witches? Is stuttering mentionned in the bible, the Sagas or other historical tests? Many questions, I hope some antropologists or historians dig deeper in the subject someday...

Ora said...

Einar: According to one interpretation, Moses stuttered. The Biblical verse is Exodus 4:10 - Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

Moses sometimes appears on the lists and posters of famous stutterers. See for example http://www.stutteringhelp.org/famous-people-who-stutter. Also http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/did-moses-stutter-a-scientific-investigation/

Tom Weidig said...

I think it's a rhetorical tool to express his inferiority to God Almighty despite him being the leader of his people with outstanding public speaking abilities!

He want to show that he is not God even though he is the strongest of all humans.

Anonymous said...

God doesnt discrimate. Pretty sure moses was a stutterer. Stutterers are intelligent yet compassionate and god knows that.

God chooses the best people for the job and stutterers are definately one of the best.

"slow of tongue" may mean he was old but pretty sure he was a stutterer because there is another incident where he confronts a pharoah and they may be a stutter related incident

Ora said...

Tom - just looking at the title of your March 16 post: 5 minutes each day on stuttering.

What happened to the 5 minutes each day?? Your followers miss you!