Goof Reveals Phonetic Guide for Bush

[Independent]

They give him his speeches with phonetic spellings and he STILL manages to make major gaffes? And this is the leader of the free world

Almost makes you like the little puppet.

Goof Reveals Phonetic Guide for Bush
By Matt Spetalnick,Reuters
Posted: 2007-09-26 14:56:31

NEW YORK (Sept. 26) - How do you keep a leader as verbally gaffe-prone as U.S. President George W. Bush from making even more slips of the tongue?

President Bush addresses the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. The White House mistakenly posted a draft of the speech that included phonetic spellings of names of foreign countries, capitals and leaders.

When Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, the White House inadvertently showed exactly how -- with a phonetic pronunciation guide on the teleprompter to get him past troublesome names of countries and world leaders.

The White House was left scrambling to explain after a marked-up draft of Bush's speech popped up briefly on the U.N. Web site as he delivered his remarks, giving a rare glimpse of the special guidance he gets for major addresses.

It included phonetic spellings for French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee), a friend, and Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee), a target of U.S. human rights criticism.

Pronunciations were also provided for Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan), Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a) and the Zimbabwe capital Harare (hah-RAR-ray).

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the draft, labeled the 20th version and complete with typos and speechwriters' cellphone numbers, had been turned over in advance to help U.N. interpreters who must simultaneously translate leaders' speeches into several languages.

Bush's text also had to be loaded onto a teleprompter to appear on screens in front of the podium as he spoke.

"There was an error made," Perino told reporters. "I don't know how the draft of the speech that was not final was posted but it was and it was taken back."

"Anyone giving a major speech or delivering a broadcast, like on the morning and nightly network news, has phonetics for cues just for the possibility they're needed," she later explained.

Bush is no stranger to the occasional faux pas, and often jokes about his habit of mangling the English language.

One of his highest-profile gaffes came in May when, at a welcoming ceremony for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, he nearly placed her in the 18th century.

At a speech during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney earlier this month, Bush seemed to confuse the organization with OPEC and spoke of Austrian troops in Iraq when he meant to say Australian.

 

[SavvyMom]

Oh...my....gosh

 

[MM27]

So are you telling me that George W. can't read?
And he has the b*lls to come up with these idiotic No Child Left Behind standards? Perhaps little Georgie was left behind himself.

 

[SavvyMom]

So are you telling me that George W. can't read?
And he has the b*lls to come up with these idiotic No Child Left Behind standards? Perhaps little Georgie was left behind himself.

<<evil laugh

 

[crazyme5kids]

Well, I;m not a fan of President Bush, but I can understand using phonetic spelling so that he pronounces names properly. It makes me nuts to hear broadcasters pronounce names wrong. Traffic broadcasters are the worst when it comes to pronouncing streets and road names.

 

[Independent]

Well, I;m not a fan of President Bush, but I can understand using phonetic spelling so that he pronounces names properly. It makes me nuts to hear broadcasters pronounce names wrong. Traffic broadcasters are the worst when it comes to pronouncing streets and road names.

I think what is funny is even with the phonetic triggers, he still is one of the most mistake-prone speakers in history. He can't even read the phonetic spellings.

 

[cardaway]

If his own last name was something like Sarkozy he would probably get that wrong too.

It's not that hard to do this kind of thing right. Other leaders, and even the media, does it all the time.

But it takes time and the discipline to want to get things right. Things that obviously our current POTUS doesn't take seriously, and that is IMO very shameful.

 

[salmoneous]

I can think of a whole lot of reasons to be critical of George W Bush. Not knowing how to pronounce Kyrgyzstan ain't one of them. Good for him for using a phonetic speech rather they trying to wing it.

 

[Pigeon]

Sorry, but I think the leader of the free world ought to know how to pronounce Kyrgyzstan. If you are making foreign policy that impacts other countries, it's not too much to expect that you know what those countries are. It's just not that tough.

Now if only they would put down the phonetic spelling for nuclear.

 

[CapeCodTenor]

So what if he uses phonetic spellings of words. I don't get why this is such a big problem. I'm sure the President of France, or the PM of Great Britain, or any other leader in the world uses some kind of phonetic spelling of names (be it their own or the actual phonetic alphabet).

Bush's text also had to be loaded onto a teleprompter to appear on screens in front of the podium as he spoke.

I thought all speaches were loaded on teleprompters?

 

[pogo791]

Well, I;m not a fan of President Bush, but I can understand using phonetic spelling so that he pronounces names properly. It makes me nuts to hear broadcasters pronounce names wrong. Traffic broadcasters are the worst when it comes to pronouncing streets and road names.

I can think of a whole lot of reasons to be critical of George W Bush. Not knowing how to pronounce Kyrgyzstan ain't one of them. Good for him for using a phonetic speech rather than trying to wing it.

I'm with Crazyme5kids and Salmoneous on this one. I consider myself a pretty well-read and internationally oriented guy, but looking at the cues given to Bush on how to pronounce Sarkozy, Mugabe, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania and Harare, I see that I would have partly mispronounced every single one of them. (And I thought I knew how to pronounce Mauritania!)

If I do mispronounce those names, it doesn't matter. But if President Bush does it, in particular at the UN, where the audience includes many people from France, Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe and Mauritania - among others - it can be considered impolite. After all, people like to have their names or their country's name pronounced correctly.

That said, there are just so many times you have to wonder what is going through Bush's head. The most recent gaffe that I can think of was when he said, about a week ago, that the eminent South African Nelson Mandela - who is old and frail, but in fact very much alive - had been killed by Saddam Hussein.

quote from http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22461088-5005961,00.html:

In a speech defending his administration's Iraq policy, Mr Bush said former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's brutality had made it impossible to unite the country.

"I heard somebody say, 'Where's Mandela?'," he said.

"Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas."

 

[cardaway]

Sorry, but I think the leader of the free world ought to know how to pronounce Kyrgyzstan. If you are making foreign policy that impacts other countries, it's not too much to expect that you know what those countries are. It's just not that tough.

Now if only they would put down the phonetic spelling for nuclear.

You don;t even have to know at first, a professional, or respectful leader learns to pronounce words before the event. Not that difficult for anybody willing to put in the time and show respect.