Benezir Bhutto: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan

Hi

I would like to know if anyone has ever heard Benezir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, deliver an English speech! If yes, how did you find her? Is she good at language?

Tom

Hi Tom,

I haven’t heard Benazir Bhutto speak so I can’t give you an opinion on her pronunciation but I have heard Pervez Musharraf give press conferences a few times. He has this distinct accent of Indian born people who speak English as a second language. Clearly he has been using English on a daily basis for quite a while so he can express any of his thoughts fluently.

Come to think of it, his English probably also has been influenced by Pakistan born English speakers because Indian born might have a slightly different intonation.

I’d be interested to read what our distinctive team of ESL professionals have to say on this…[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEFL listening discussions: Why is the man taking this course?[YSaerTTEW443543]

Hi Tom

Benazir Bhutto speaks excellent, clear English. She has a mild accent - which I assume comes from Pakistan :wink: - but it makes her English all the more beautiful and interesting, in my opinion.

Amy

On second thought, has anyone of you heard Imran Khan speak English? By the way, he is the former cricket player of Pakistan? Studied in the UK and famous for his English here!

Tom

PS: Amy, have you heard him also?

Hi Tom

Sorry, I don’t know much about him.
It seems I should, though, seeing as according to Wikipedia, he was once voted as the “Sexiest Man of The Year” by Australia Magazine Oz. :lol: :wink:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imran_Khan

Americans tend to know absolutely nothing about cricket. :wink:

I remember once asking a British friend to explain the game to me. I ended up even more confused. :lol:

Amy

Tom, you and I have talked about our youthful crushes on Heddy Lamar, and I hope you’re sitting down when I tell you this. When I was younger (or more accurately, when she was younger) I had a very bad crush on Benezir Bhutto!

Her English, from what I’ve heard of it, is nearly perfect. She has that Pakistani accent, but a Hindi or Urdu accent is considered one of the ordinary accents of near-native English, as long as it’s not too thick.

Now it’s gonna make us competitors, Jamie! :smiley:

I like(d) H. Lamarr with all my heart, and ( so do you :shock: )

I like(d) Benezir Bhutto a lot, and ( so do you :shock: )

Anyway, could you please elaborate on your point a bit more? What do you mean by hear of? Haven’t you heard B. Bhutto yourself? If no, how come you could develop a crush on a person you had never heard?

Tom

I’ll see you after school, outside by the bike racks! :twisted:

Sure, I’ve heard her speaking to the press and giving speeches, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s English sounds good all the time. I don’t know what she sounds like when she’s sleepy, when she’s angry, or when she’s just having a normal conversation. I just know that her English in official situations sounds good.

I think I’ve mentioned before that a Canadian disk jockey used to do a very good imitation of Jean Chretien, who was the Canadian prime minister at the time. Using this voice he was able to get through on the phone to Queen Elizabeth and broadcast a few minutes of the conversation on the radio before the queen realized something was wrong. When she thought she was talking to a “work colleague”, so to speak, Queen Elizabeth sounded just like a regular old lady. I was surprised.

Hi All,
Hey you native speakers! :slight_smile:
What do you think of Arnold’s English?
Like it?
Spencer

Hi Spencer

The Governator’s English was pretty bad when he first moved to the US. His English was better by the time he made his first film, but his accent was still so heavy, that he wasn’t easy to understand and his lines had to be dubbed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_in_New_York

Nowadays, he still has a German accent, but it’s not as “thick” as it once was and he’s easy to understand. His command of English is excellent. I like his accent. :smiley:

Amy

Arnold still has the heavy Austrian accent that made him perfect for playing robots in science fiction movies. However, his grammar and command of idioms and collocations is so perfect that if you didn’t hear the accent, you generally wouldn’t know he was an immigrant. But oddly, despite the quality of his English, when he’s talking off the cuff, instead of “with” he says “mit” most of the time. That’s his only real mistake.

Hi Tom,

It just occurred to me that you spelled Benezir Bhutto’s name “Benezir” instead of Benazir. Was that a type or just a different spelling of her name?

Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Mountain climbing[YSaerTTEW443543]

I think the person ,who killed the Prime Minister of Pakistan is not a good persob,but I’m moreinterested,why did he decide to become a terroris ?!

Usually there’s no justifiable reason for it. Someone even strapped bombs to a baby in an attempt to kill her. It doesn’t matter what made him decide to do it. Any reason he’d give would just be an excuse.

Hi

It can be spelled both ways, Torsten. For example,

Ahmed or Ahmad

Umer or Omer

Aysha or Ayesha

PS: The interesting thing is that there is a typo in your “typo”.

how about Mohammed/Muhammad?

Are they different spellings of the same name, or are they two distinct names?

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your answer. It seems, that Benazir is the more popular version and it also produces far more Google results along with images and a Wikipedia entry.

And yes, I really made an interesting type of typo while typing the word typo.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: A lady pointing[YSaerTTEW443543]

I thought that was hilarious, Torsten – “type”. hehe

I figured you did it on purpose, so I didn’t say anything.