It likely depends on who's asking - I speak fast, for a(n American) southerner. I recall folk remarking on my drawl when visiting other states but at home I sometimes have to repeat myself because the words spew out too fast.
My speech difficulties are generally that it takes me a good, long moment to (over)think what I'm going to say, and then occasionally I'll have a cart-before-horse moment where my own train of thought interrupts whatever I'm saying and I just get stuck with an 'uh, uh...'. Whenever I do manage to jumble my words I usually exaggerate it and laugh it off, at least in casual conversation - mostly because that's what I did when I was younger and it got good results, usually.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with speaking slow, especially if you've got good diction. It's certainly better than the type who seem to have no barrier between brain and mouth, heh. Monotone can be unsettling though, especially since tone carries quite a bit of meaning.
I like that.
Most of the time I speak to strangers, on the phone; they go far too fast and seem to scramble their sounds, like it's a foreign tongue, and wanting to belittle the listener, making it hard for them. That's my experience, that they'd read from a set of paragraphs written for them, - an autocue, like the news and weather, but to challenge the listener.
I sometimes say "what?" - "say again?" - "say again" / "I heard the word 'it' ", but that'd didn't mean much.
I start by going slow. I did hear about the Australian / American drawl when I was little, meaning it was slow / stupid. I like to compose my sentences carefully, but never get hung up or forget my thread. I never, ever, say 'ummmmmmm, ummmmmmmmmmmm...'. That is dreadful. Newspeople and weatherpeople do, and even politicians do. The worst I do is say "hold on", looking around for a microsecond, then resume the thread. I go at a reasonable pace. On the phone, strangers seem like a child on mega-fast. "blub-blub-blub-blub-" with no words in there
As soon as I ask "whaaaat
iiiis
yououror
naaaame?"
They hang up
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