New Work : “I am a jelly donut”

There is a famous urban myth that is told in Berlin about JFK supposedly making a grammatical error when speaking to the citizens of Berlin after the erection of the Berlin Wall. The story goes that JFK wanted to express solidarity with the Berliners by saying ‘I am a Berliner’. But here’s where the confusion lies, JKF said ”Ich bin ein Berliner” instead of ”Ich bin Berliner”. A Berliner being either a delicious jelly filled donut or a citizen of the city. There has been a long grammatical debate over whether using the ‘ein’ in the sentence implied that JFK was referring to himself as the jelly donut.

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The internet tells me that this myth has since been debunked but the fact there was this huge infamous confusion (that even appeared on the front page of the New York Times the day after) about the German language and it’s correct usage is the premise of my design for the interpreting business Red Tape Translation.

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3 thoughts on “New Work : “I am a jelly donut”

  1. Pingback: I am a jelly donut | Red Tape Translation

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