The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ralph Wiggum on January 05, 2023, 06:35:24 PM
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Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre always manages to find new ways to embarrass herself. From the very beginning, she’s proven herself to be a lackluster spokesperson. Biden received praise from the media for promoting her to replace Jen Psaki, but that was because Jean-Pierre was a black lesbian rather than for her communication abilities. As such, her first months as White House Press Secretary haven’t gone very well.
She has managed to be even less prepared than Jen Psaki, awkwardly dodging questions and constantly having to refer to her notes. Things were getting so bad that they even brought Pentagon spokesman John Kirby over to babysit her. It also goes without saying that her exchanges with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy haven’t gone well for her either.
Her latest problem is her inability to pronounce well-known words. In a recent press briefing, Jean-Pierre, while discussing the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, botched the word “emeritus.”
"Em-er-eye-tis"
There are actually many more examples of Jean-Pierre botching common words. For example, mispronouncing “bicameral” as “bicarmel.”
Or pronouncing the “Nobel Prize” as “Noble Prize” and “Korean Armistice” as “Korean Armtice.”
And one of my personal favorites: calling the Nord Stream pipeline the “Nordstrom” pipeline.
One could say that pointing this out is petty, but I can distinctly remember the media mocking George W. Bush for how he pronounced the word “nuclear” and implying that his mispronunciation was a reflection of low intelligence when, in actuality, it is not an uncommon pronunciation, often attributed to regional dialects the same way the word “aunt” is pronounced like a bug in most of the United States but more like how it’s spelled in New England.
Her repeated mispronunciation of words is a different animal. As the White House Press Secretary, her job is entirely based on communication, and, as the above examples show, her communication skills are lacking. It’s bad enough she constantly needs to refer to notes, but her habitual mispronunciations suggest that she really doesn’t know what she’s talking about and is just brainlessly reading off her script.
PJ Media Link Thing (https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/01/05/karine-jean-pierre-has-a-big-problem-n1658896)
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Yeah, you'd think that a WH press secretary would be not only comfortable in the English language and pronunciation of at least the American way of speaking, but we all know she wasn't hired for her prowess in English.
She was hired because she's black and she's a lesbian. Full stop.
That said, I do NOT disparage someone, anyone, from butchering the pronunciation of a word now and again. We all get it wrong from time to time. That comes from READING the language rather than SPEAKING it.
KJP was born in France of Haitian parents. That means her mother tongue is French.
I lived and worked in Germany for some 15 years and while one could argue I did so under the cocoon of the U.S. Army (true), I was NEVER one to roll back to that. I took the time and trouble to learn the language enough to certify as a linguist in that language.
Props to KJP (as much as I deplore her lifestyle and her politics) for what she can do. She knows she's the turd in the punchbowl, but she shows up anyway.
That takes guts.
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Obviously they won’t put some one out there who is brighter than the dim bulb that is in the White House :-) :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
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Obviously they won’t put some one out there who is brighter than the dim bulb that is in the White House :-) :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Getting to the point where the only way to hold to that standard would be to wheel a dead body out as the dementia addled bastard's new spokesbeing.
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Yeah, you'd think that a WH press secretary would be not only comfortable in the English language and pronunciation of at least the American way of speaking, but we all know she wasn't hired for her prowess in English.
She was hired because she's black and she's a lesbian. Full stop.
That said, I do NOT disparage someone, anyone, from butchering the pronunciation of a word now and again. We all get it wrong from time to time. That comes from READING the language rather than SPEAKING it.
KJP was born in France of Haitian parents. That means her mother tongue is French.
I lived and worked in Germany for some 15 years and while one could argue I did so under the cocoon of the U.S. Army (true), I was NEVER one to roll back to that. I took the time and trouble to learn the language enough to certify as a linguist in that language.
Props to KJP (as much as I deplore her lifestyle and her politics) for what she can do. She knows she's the turd in the punchbowl, but she shows up anyway.
That takes guts.
I understand what you mean. No clue on how long KJP has known the English language and it certainly still does take time to learn a few intricacies just as those of us who've learned unfamiliar languages. Especially if they are regional dialects. But the four or five words I posted above aren't in rare terms. I suspect she's just oblivious and doesn't care about proper nomenclature. Whereas, I've always been a bit of spelling, grammar, and pronunciation tyrant.
My major point is this woman is just incompetent and wasn't hired based on meritocracy.
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My major point is this woman is just incompetent and wasn't hired based on meritocracy.
No argument from me about KJP's competency. She's completely out of her depth. But attacking her from the POV of pronunciation of language isn't just low-hanging fruit -- it's going after the stuff on the ground. Plenty of other issues to attack her on.
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Butchering pronunciations, and, oh, just about everything else.