Mannerisms.

“Hmm…….., Hmm……, Hmm, you see!”

It is sometimes very difficult and at the same time exciting to……, to…..,

“Hmm…….., Hmm……., Hmm, you see!”

to keep count of the number of times a speaker repeats such phrases. Other popular ones may be:

“As I was saying….!” – “As I told you before ….!” – “You see….!”

Mannerisms are part and parcel of our behaviour. They may take the shape and form of a myriad pattern, embellishing our colour of saying and gesticulating as attractively and as professionally as the well-seasoned actors usually perform on stage.

Have you ever had the time and the will to acknowledge your own mannerisms, so well known to your circle of friends and, or to discover those of your acquaintances, or the people generally around you? I am in no way suggesting any derogative attitudes, or being callous to our best friends. This exercise is only meant as an attempt to a humouristic approach to this category of automatic and unconscious human activity.

Basically, human mannerisms can be listed under two main headings: verbal and corporal, the latter may easily be defined as another perspective of body language. In the very same way as a language makes use of punctuation marks to convey meaning intelligently, so mannerisms punctuate the human gift of speech.

No studies, at least as far as it is known, demonstrate beyond any shadow of doubt, that mannerism is also in action during sleep. Perhaps our partners may have different views. If you can throw some light on this matter you are kindly invited to pass on your empirical conclusions to the established books of records, for inclusion in the next issue.

Some verbal mannerisms are a joy to learn about. We all have come across the type, whose statements invariably start, according to the most solemn testimonies:

“You have heard about…didn’t you?”

and supplying the name, surname, and sometimes even the nick of the person intended, would give a detailed curriculum vitae of the person under focus. Of course, the revelations are passed on with pleas for confidentiality, little realising that the attentive listeners would pass on the data to others at the very first opportune occasion, with, of course, the same charitable prayers for reservations.

Needles to point out, mannerisms enjoy a very fertile and prolific crop. They are sometimes so popular, especially those that may be classified as uncouth, or not very uplifting, those that are so very easily picked up by the visitors, that they almost form part of the established vernacular.

More academic mannerisms are an easy pitfall for certain professions. The top of the list would read: teachers, lecturers, preachers, and clergy. In other words people who make a living out of talking. Unless extremely careful, it is very easy that the learned would become prey of this practice. We all remember perhaps the comic, but nostalgic mannerisms our best teachers had. In some cases it is easier to remember the mannerism than the subject taught by our mentors.

But body language mannerisms are sometimes masterpieces of the imagination. Touching or brushing one’s nose or ears, playing with one’s own hair, scratching, face twitching or a catalogue of facial expressions, and a thousand gestures, personalise our actions. It is not an exaggeration to state that sometimes mannerisms are instrumental to identify an acquaintance, or to create a nick for keeps.

It is amusing noticing people around us pulling strings and straps from their attire to gain a more comfortable sensation on the more sensitive zones.

In sporting activities, mannerisms thrive on the excellent scenario readily available, where the conditions are at an optimum, due mainly to tensions and the challenge for a peak performance. Take tennis, for instance. It is so handsomely comic to watch a server going through a ritual of antics, such as removing sand from the soles of the tennis- shoes with the racket, or biting the lower lip in an agony of stress, or pulling up or down to its proper place, one’s shorts or undergarment, as the case may be.


The tee and the green are also likely backdrops for the resourceful and imaginative golfer. Mannerisms are easy to become habitual. The way one reads the green, clearing all obstacles on the green, even where there aren’t any, making actions looking as liturgical and solemn as a function at the cathedral, are but a few pleasant automatic actions. A golfer became famous, besides, of course, through the elegance and talent in the game, by managing to discover a new way for carrying one of his irons. He pegged the head of the club in one of the back pockets of his trousers, with the shaft dangling behind as it were a tail, and found no difficulty in walking briskly all along the fairways.

"I…, I…, I…,"

excuse the mannerism, please, I must put an end to my piece to-day, with apologies to all lucky people in possession of humane mannerisms, and suggest that if they are worth having them, it is worth cultivating them. At the same time, I must add the missing part of the well-known anonymous fourteenth century saying:

“Manners maketh men…(and women), but mannerisms make them better.”

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