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I am a jelly donut: It was forty years ago, today, that President John F. Kennedy uttered these famous words, "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin"). It was a moment in history that became a matter of urban legends that these words translated as "I am a jelly doughnut." (A "Berliner" is, in fact, a type of jelly doughnut made in Berlin.)

This is truly The Gaffe That Never Was, despite reports to the contrary in venues as prestigious as the New York Times and Newsweek magazine. Experts say Kennedy's German grammar was flawless when he uttered those words near the Berlin Wall on June 26, 1963. It seems that the German language is simply not that trivial — it has subtleties that very few non-native speakers grasp. If President Kennedy had said "Ich bin Berliner," he would have sounded silly because, with his heavy New England accent, he couldn't possibly have come from Berlin. But by saying "Ich bin ein Berliner," he actually said, "I am one with the people of Berlin."

Forty years later, the more things change the more they remain the same, as people less adept at the intricacies of foreign policy and the subtleties of language misunderestimate the President when he says to the people of the world, "I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy."

Posted by abnu on Thursday, June 26, 2003 @ 10:48 PM [ + ]

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