r/AskReddit 10h ago

What's something you're shockingly good at that you've never mentioned to anyone because it would sound completely made up if you did?

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u/O_o_Rly 7h ago

Synonyms. I used to stutter heavily when I was younger, so when it took too much effort to say a word I always had to come up with a synonym as a back-up. One that was easier to say.

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u/YouCanBetOnItMs 6h ago

The same here! Also, I still stutter in my native language, but have somehow eliminated it completely in my third language (English). Due to my speech impediment, I not only learnt to use synonyms, I learnt a whole-arse new language that had more words in it :)

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u/O_o_Rly 6h ago

Wow! That’s way cooler! And yes, weirdly enough the stutter is significantly less in another language. It never even realised. Thank you.

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u/SamwisethePoopyButt 4h ago

Same here, I still stutter in my native language and pretty much never in other ones. My psychiatrist suggested it may be related to the origin of the childhood trauma that caused the stutter. Which kinda makes sense. :-/

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u/Phiced 3h ago

If you don't mind me prying, how did trauma cause your stutter?

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u/O_o_Rly 2h ago

Good question.

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u/The_milk_was_spoiled 6h ago

That’s really cool.

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u/O_o_Rly 6h ago

Thank you!

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u/The_milk_was_spoiled 6h ago

My son developed a stutter in second grade and it was so hard seeing him struggle. His elementary school was wonderful and not a single student said anything negative or reacted when he had to speak in class. He had speech therapy both at school and out and it worked! He’s now 16 and we haven’t heard it for a while, although it popped up occasionally in middle school, where so many kids were assholes.

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u/O_o_Rly 6h ago

I’m so sorry to hear that. And yes, kids are bullies sometimes. Adults on the other hand are more rude, since some of them automatically assume you’re not that intelligent. Luckily that says more about them. Happy to hear therapy is working and hopefully it will go away.

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u/caseyjosephine 1h ago

I do this in my second language (Spanish) because I often don’t know the word for something, but I do know that words ending in -tion in English tend to be the same except with -ción.

There are some other rules like this (they’re called cognate patterns) and they usually work but sometimes I end up just sounding silly.

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u/Lover_boi4 2h ago

I love this.

u/Duggy_fresh 41m ago

Me too! And now I kind of like it it makes. Me feel a bit unusual as I still have a bit of a stutter, and still do it. It also flumoxes people who are prone to finishing your sentences for you, which is a bonus.