focus for this week: Why don't birds fly backwards ?
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Do you realize what comes out of your mouth?

A friend told me that I use one certain word (let’s call it xyz) very often. This would generate a certain kind of feeling for him. Since the communication is not face to face, I had no chance to see his mimic in these situations. Of course people perceive things different and pay attention to different things, which are important (only) for them. So, I am wondering, is he right with the frequency or does he perceive it different ?

I decided to start an experiment: I want to see, which words I use more frequently. And which words cause which reactions in the people.
With this I learn something about me and also about others.

But since it is not easy to observe yourself objectively, I will use for this experiment as much help as I can get:
ask my friends and tell them to observe such behaviour more;
I will use tools (e.g. if you have text in written form you can use the freeware program AntConc)

I am curious about, what the experiment will show. Perhaps that I am using in different situations different type of words? Do I use the word xyz while speaking more? (I just analyzed only our chats and I used the word xyz only 34 times over a long period.) Do I use it much more with a certain person ? I can tell you certainly more about that in the future.

So, if you observe that I am repeating something too often, please tell me. Make me happy ! I also will try to make you happy with diversifying my usage of words and telling you what I observe from you.

Author: Erkan Yilmaz (2007-04-19)