JFK

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 18:03:29 -0500, G.R. Patterson III wrote:

The editors of several Berlin newspapers would be surprised to hear that
(Berliner Morgenpost, Berliner Zeitung, etc.). Berliner refers to a resident
of Berlin, just as a Hamburger is a denizen of Hamburg and a Frankfurter
resides in Frankfurt.

"Ich bin Berliner" translates as "I am a Berliner". "Ich bin EIN Berliner"
translates as "I am a jelly doughnut".

No.

"I am a New Yorker" means that I am from New York and would not mean that I
am a fashion store ('New Yorker' is the name of a local retail chain for
clothing).

JFK said it in West-Berlin, in the high time of the cold war. That the
Berlin wall was the lesser bad thing for the US than any heavier conflict
with the countries behind the iron curtain is another story and might have
started at the meeting in Vienna with Khrushchev in 1961.

#m
--
http://www.declareyourself.com/fyr_candidates.php

Martin Hotze wrote:

No.

Well, you certainly know the language much better than I.

George Patterson
They say nothing's certain except death and taxes. The thing is, death
doesn't get worse every time Congress goes into session.

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 18:56:50 -0500, "G.R. Patterson III"
wrote:

Martin Hotze wrote:

No.

Well, you certainly know the language much better than I.

Don't bet on it.

Rob

--
[You] don't make your kids P.C.-proof by keeping them
ignorant, you do it by helping them learn how to
educate themselves.

-- Orson Scott Card

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 03:37:09 GMT, Robert Perkins
wrote:

Don't bet on it.

I just occured to me that that might not be a fair thing to say
without some context.

"Don't bet on it." No educated German or Austrian I've met knew German
grammar rules as well as someone who had studied the German language
as a native English speaker. English speakers have to learn German
grammar, since English grammar has fewer formal rules than German.
It's our *spelling* rules which take the cake.

But if what Martin means is that "Ich bin ein Berliner", in the
context of a political speech to a cheering crowd, is just as
understandable as "Ich bin Berliner", then he's right to say it's
correct stuff, since the discrepancy is so mind-bogglingly meaningless
that it's hard to believe I've written as much about it as I have.

IMO, Kennedy's enemies kept this one alive, probably only to embarrass
him. The Germans forgave him for being American before the word
"Berliner" was fully uttered.

Rob

--
[You] don't make your kids P.C.-proof by keeping them
ignorant, you do it by helping them learn how to
educate themselves.

-- Orson Scott Card

in article , Robert Perkins at
wrote on 11/16/03 7:53 PM:

The Germans forgave him for being American before the word
"Berliner" was fully uttered.

Rob

I think foreigners are so astonished whenever an American can utter more
than two words of their native language that they automatically forgive
minor grammatical errors.

Robert Perkins wrote:

IMO, Kennedy's enemies kept this one alive, probably only to embarrass
him. The Germans forgave him for being American before the word
"Berliner" was fully uttered.

I thought I'd been taught this story to help ameliorate what I do to the
German language.

- Andrew

Andrew Gideon wrote:

I thought I'd been taught this story to help ameliorate what I do to the
German language.

Nothing can ameliorate what *I* do to the German language.

George Patterson
The actions taken by the New Hampshire Episcopalians (ie. inducting a gay
bishop) are an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that
the church's founder, Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine of Aragon, and his
wife Anne Boleyn, and his wife Jane Seymour, and his wife Anne of Cleves,
and his wife Katherine Howard, and his wife Catherine Parr are no longer
here to suffer through this assault on traditional Christian marriages.