Son of a Bush i gramatika

[crippled_avenger]

'Childrens do learn', Bush tells school kids

NZ Herald, 27 September 2007



George W Bush poses with New York school children at a PR event. Photo / Reuters

NEW YORK - Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, President George W Bush told a group of New York school kids yesterday: "Childrens do learn."
Bush made his latest grammatical slip-up at a made-for-TV event where he urged Congress to reauthorise the No Child Left Behind Act, the centrepiece of his education policy, as he touted a new national report card on improved test scores.

The event drew New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings plus teachers and about 20 fourth and fifth graders from P.S. 76.

During his first presidential campaign, Bush - who promised to be the "education president" - once asked: -




"Is our children learning?"?




Yesterday, Bush seemed to answer his own question with the same kind of grammatical twist.

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said.

The White House opted to clean up Bush's diction in the official transcript.

Bush is no stranger to verbal gaffes. He often acknowledges he was no more than an average student in school and jokes about his habit of mangling the English language.

Just a day earlier, the White House inadvertently showed how it tries to prevent Bush from making even more slips of the tongue than he already does.

As Bush addressed the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, a marked-up draft of his speech briefly popped up on the UN website, complete with a phonetic pronunciation guide to get him past troublesome names of countries and world leaders.




REUTERS

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How Bush gets his tongue around tricky names

NZ Herald, 27 September 2007

How do you keep a leader as verbally gaffe-prone as United States President George W. Bush from making even more slips of the tongue?
When Bush addressed the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, 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 Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee), a target of US human rights criticism. Pronunciations were also provided for Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania and Harare.

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

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

"There was an error made," Perino said. "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."

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 the Queen, he nearly placed her in the 18th century.

At a speech during the Apec summit in Sydney this month, Bush confused the organisation with Opec and spoke of Austrian troops in Iraqwhen he meant to say Australian.


Say It Again,George

Kyrgyzstan: KEYR-geez-stan
Mauritania: moor-EH-tain-ee-a
Mugabe: moo-GAH-bee
Harare: hah-RAR-ray
Sarkozy: sar-KO-zee
Caracas: kah-RAH-kus


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