On one of your quizzes (word myths), it is stated that Kennedy did NOT really say "I am a jelly doughnut". There is sure a lot of controversy around this one. I know that, in German, if you want to express your nationality, you do not include an indefinite article (the word "a/an") in the phrase. So "Ich bin Berliner" would be correct to say "I am a Berliner". By including the article, you change the meaning of the German word "Berliner" from "a citizen of Berlin" to "a jelly doughnut". The word "Berliner" even has these 2 entries in my German-English dictionary. So even though of course everyone there knew what he meant, everyone also knew what he really said.

quote:

So even though of course everyone there knew what he meant, everyone also knew what he really said.

And they cheered like crazy, too. Remember, Berlin was cut off from the rest of the world by the Soviets, and Kennedy's statement really meant that "as long as you are held captive like this, the whole world was being held captive". Thus, the whole power of the US was being thrown behind their struggle for survival.

When such a monumental commitment is being made, a simple error in symantics can be ignored. The statement is actually heroic.

Of course, I intended to say "grammatical error". But it wouldn't let me correct it.

So he should have said "Ich bin _EIN_ Berliner" ?
or he should have left the "ein" out?

Another Kennedy quote "We choose to GO TO THE MOON, and DO THE OTHER THING, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!"

What is "the Other Thing" ?

(yes I could google it, but in't it more fun to converse w/ people sometimes?)

He should have left the ein out.

Ich bin Frankfurter = I live in Frankfurt/I'm from Frankfurt.
Ich bin ein Frankfurter = I'm a hot dog.

Ich bin Hamburger = I'm from Hamburg/I live in Hamburg.
Ich bin ein Hamburger = I'm a hamburger.

Ich bin Wiener = I'm from Vienna (Wien)...

Ok... you get the point.

Toga_dan

He was probably talking about Marilyn Monroe...

yeah, I went there.

MythMod

MythMod!!!!!

Actually, "Ich bin ein Berliner" was perfectly correct, and does NOT mean I'm a doughnut!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#Jelly_doughnut_urban_legend

Roofingguy:
My German students LOVE it when we come up with those sentences in class. Expecially the last one. They get such a kick out of it. And of course I use it to teach cultural and grammatical lessons, too. Such fun we can have with words and language.

Thank you denver, I forgot about the figurative difference. It's been 20+ years.

quote:

Another Kennedy quote "We choose to GO TO THE MOON, and DO THE OTHER THING, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!"

What is "the Other Thing" ?

I believe it has something to do with "bring them back to the Earth", although I can't come up with a direct quote.

I do like Mythmod's answer, though.

Kennedy's Moon speech,,,, (it's "things")
http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/3.htm

He was speaking about broader social issues that needed to be addressed-notably the Civil Rights Movement- and he was stressing that all these things wouldn't be easy, but we could accomplish them together just like the proposed Moon Mission.

You are correct, and I was wrong. Oh, well.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by denverd0n:
Actually, "Ich bin ein Berliner" was perfectly correct, and does NOT mean I'm a doughnut!

[URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/

Remember that Wikipedia can be changed by anyone. You can't always rely on that site. I trust my own knowledge of German grammar over Wikipedia, in this case.

"Linguist Jürgen Eichhoff laid decades of misinformation to rest in 1993 with a concise grammatical analysis of Kennedy's statement in the academic journal Monatshefte. "'Ich bin ein Berliner' is not only correct," Eichhoff wrote, "but the one and only correct way of expressing in German what the President intended to say."

From:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/jfk_berliner.htm

Guten tag, y'all
I'm not sure whether to be shocked, amused, or just not dignify the following with a response... Oh wait, I am.

Mythmod wrote
Toga_dan

He was probably talking about ******** *********...

yeah, I went there.

MythMod

This quote has been edited by toga_dan

*snort!*

Musta had a bad day....

*MythMod hangs her head down in shame... and winks at Toga_dan ....

MM

I first heard this myth from a German teacher who should have known better. But while visiting Germany I once shared a few beers with a German journalist, and she assured me that Kennedy said it exactly right. She was actually somewhat shocked by the myth. I guess the German language is more subtle than we realize.

MMod
I think Shakespeare might almost have slipped your entendre past the Elizebethan censors. With a wee bit more camoflage. I don't suppose we need be more prudish than Q Elizebeth, do we?

Re: Deutsch
Are there any good narratives printed with the English on one side and German on the other? I'd like to just read a story to learn language rather than try to learn all grammar rules. Took German in college, but it was a bit...dry?