Basically...

Many year ago, my friend, S pointed out to me that I had been using the phrase stuff like that a lot in my conversation, border-lining abuse. From that moment on, I was very conscious of my what I say and how frequent I say it. At the same time, my ears are all up picking up all these "abuses" from people around me.

One of the most common ones is basically. Basically, basically is the favorite of my colleague , C. Not only he begins every sentence with basically, he also manage to end one with basically. So much so that the moment C open his mouth in a meeting, my ears would be up on alert. My eyes will automatically search out and meet the eyes of SJ, another colleague who also notices C's peculiar habit. We would then I smile at each other, starting the our basically-counter on C and compare notes when the meeting is over. That is sure keeping us awake and etertained in a long meeting.

My boss likes to use on top. Though it is not as bad as C's basically, it's definitely noticeable. Once in a round-table group discussion, a couple of on tops came out and all of a sudden a couple of us were wearing this stupid grin on our faces, trying our damnedest not to burst out laughing.

Lately, I noticed a new addition to my office, R with his own favorite phrase. His is you see. The frequency of you see coming out og his mouth is easily rivaling C's basically. It's something like 4 you sees in every sentence he utters. Basically, he starts and ends everything he says with you sees and on top of that he manages to throw in at least a couple of you sees in between. Amazing!

So what phrase do you abuse the most?

While this sort of abuse is in fact funny and entertaining, (Depending on who you talk to, some find it painfully annoying) do be reminded that what you say and how you say are reflection of your persona and charisma.

Last word, watch your mouth.