When Kennedy addressed the crowd of over 200,000 Berliners, he said "Ich bin eine Berliner!" That was thoughtful, warm, and appropriate, but I thought his German accent was lousy. Hal
Yep, he said "I am a large sugarcoated jelly donut." He needed to leave the "ein" out. Everyone was very polite about it.
Did he really say “large“? A Berliner is not necessarily large. Why did he have to leave “ein“ out? In that context it was better to use it.
Why? Then the whole sentence wouldn't have worked. Do you mean he shouldn't have said the sentence at all?
To help clear up the urban legend, here's the scoop from Wikipedia. Kennedy used the phrase twice in his speech, including at the end, pronouncing the sentence with his Boston accent and reading from his note "ish bin ein Bearleener", which he had written out using English orthography to approximate the German pronunciation. He also used classical Latin pronunciation of civis romanus sum, with the c pronounced [k] and the v as [w]. There is a widespread misconception (outside German-speaking countries) that the phrase was not used correctly and actually means "I am a doughnut", referring to the Berliner doughnut. It has even been embellished into an urban legend, including equally incorrect claims about the audience laughing at this phrase.
I think he probably should've just said it in English. I know he was wanting to feel as though he was identifying with the people, but I doubt anyone from America had any idea all the war horror the Berliners lived through....on either side. The fact that they pulled themselves together and made a beautiful city out of the rubble heap they were left with deserves a deep respect.
Misconception - how true. I didn't know you can find even that in Wikipedia. It's unfailing as it seems. I also feel using German was a nice gesture to the Germans who were desperately longing for help and someone who'd relate to them. There's also any reason to be lenient with his pronunciation. After all he may not have been in touch with the language at all. I for one wouldn't want to know what I'd sound like if I had to say a sentence in Mandarin in front of hundreds of thousands. OTOH, to me he comes across as someone who even seems to be somehow enjoying the situation by making it unnecessarily difficult to say the sentence. He knew he was adored. Women just loved him. It reminds me of many celebrities saying something in German in the same style, i.e. being needlessly embarrassed when being interviewed.
Whenever I attempt to pronounce a foreign word, I make sure my ACCENT is proper. This is what made JFK's "I am a Berliner" sound so stupid! There's nothing more embarrassing than hearing an American speak a foreign word or praise if the accent isn't there, even if the word is correct. Hal
Neither did I, Beth...he was very articulate in his speech in his native tongue. It was only when he tried to pronounce a German phrase! Hal
No, Hal, he didn't sound stupid when he said that German sentence. He just had an admittedly strong foreign accent. That's all.