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In connection with tempo, one has to touch upon the whole matter of rate of speech. It seems to me many fine people are somewhat tiresome because they talk too slowly, too deliberately. They seem to fear that they might make a slip of the tongue or discharge the wrong word. Or perhaps they are too fearful of sounding like a chatterbox. Naturally, the opposite fault is talking too rapidly. But of the two extremes, I would rather suffer ten who talk too fast than one who seems to labor uphill like an ox. In nearly every gathering of more than four people I seem to notice one who talks too sententiously, too slowly. The basic fault is usually that of tempo — of speaking every phrase as if it were as important as every other phrase. But, in addition, it is also the fault of simply talking too few words a minute. Someone has estimated that in Shakespeare's time the actor spoke his lines at approximately the rate of 160 words a minute. It seems to me that anyone who in ordinary conversation does not reach 150 words a minute will be tiresome to most hearers. Naturally, rate should vary with topic and circumstances. Difficult, serious, solemn matter needs a slower rate. Nevertheless one can safely say that most people could talk somewhat more rapidly most of the time. If only they learn to stress the important words, then the others can properly be spoken rapidly. This does not decrease understanding, it facilitates it. In reading, it has been discovered that if one does not read rapidly enough, about 300 words a minute on the average, one's mind wanders, so that one remembers less than in more concentrated, rapid reading. In conversation, something similar happens. As soon as a person, holding the floor for a few minutes, talks too slowly, his listeners' eyes and minds start wandering. A good conversationalist talks as fast as the topics and the circumstances seem to permit. |
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