"0BN0Z" <0BN0Z@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
HOW do you keep a leader as verbally gaffe-prone as US President George W
Bush from making even more slips of the tongue?
When Bush addressed the UN General Assembly, 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 UN website 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 US 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, labelled the 20th
version and complete with typos and speechwriters' mobile phone numbers,
had
been turned over in advance to help UN 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 re****ters.
"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 organisation with
OPEC
and spoke of Austrian troops in Iraq when he meant to say Australian.
|
