Originally Posted by
Fitter2
People are expected to start answering a question without a pause, without time to consider an answer. 'So' just a placeholder for 'hang on, I'm thinking of a way to not answer the question I was asked, and if I waffle long enough everybody might have forgotten what it was'. It has replaced 'um' which was interpreted as meaning 'That wasn't covered in my brief, so I'm going to make up something plausible'.
When studying for foreign language orals, it was useful to have a few stock phrases up your sleeve to buy thinking time.
Je n‘ai pas encore tous décidé mais probablement…….and it’s German equivalent could really be dragged out with an appropriate amount of Gallic or Germanic accent.
“So” by comparison just doesn’t cut it. Try things like “I haven’t actually had a chance to study the article/paper/ programme to which you refer but …..”. buy time and often give you a chance to drag in an irrelevance or whataboutism and then you can throw in the message of the day and thereby fail to answer the question at all while filling in airtime. Watch BoJo and Gove, they are really good at it. In all seriousness, it is a technique taught on media skills courses.