Probable foreign minister Westerwelle to press:"We're in Germany, speak German!"

[Sheilbh]

So even if hardly anyone speaks your language, it is better for the government to be unable to communicate with the world, rather than simply speaking in a common language?

Well this is why we have journalists.  I'd expect a journalist from the world posted to Tashkent to be able to speak the lingo or they can't do their job.

Because the actual problem here is that someone asked the poor German official to speak in English - a language he could, in fact, speak.

Which I think would be fine if he were giving a press conference at NATO or in London - on a visit.  Though I think a reporters misunderstanding the situation if they think they dictate the terms of a press conference.  But this is Berlin and the journalists there are German or there to cover Germany.  They should offer basic courtesy and speak German.

[Duque de Bragança]

The Jelly Doughnut thing reminds me of the recommendation I was given once: avoid saying
Ich bin ein Pariser
Even though I am from Paris

Would make such a cheesy icebreaker...

"Willst du einen Pariser für den nacht? 

[Viking]

This puts a new twist on the "if not for us you'd be speaking German" shtick emminating from the far side of the atlantic.

[Zanza]

The Jelly Doughnut thing reminds me of the recommendation I was given once: avoid saying
Ich bin ein Pariser
Even though I am from Paris

Would make such a cheesy icebreaker...

"Willst du einen Pariser für den nacht? 

If she answers that she doesn't want a Pariser, that could be good or bad.

[KRonn]

Adding the "ein" does not make the sentence wrong. German has a lot of rules, but there is some flexibility. Every German will have understood perfectly fine what Kennedy wanted to say.  The jelly donut thing is just an urban myth.

Well, that's a relief! It was a great speech by Kennedy.

[derspiess]

Adding the "ein" does not make the sentence wrong. German has a lot of rules, but there is some flexibility. Every German will have understood perfectly fine what Kennedy wanted to say.  The jelly donut thing is just an urban myth.

I never took the story to mean that Germans didn't understand what he was trying to say-- obviously they would hear it & make an allowance for the fact that JFK wasn't a native Krautspeaker.  I thought it was just meant to be an amusing story about a double-entendre of sorts.

[KRonn]

Adding the "ein" does not make the sentence wrong. German has a lot of rules, but there is some flexibility. Every German will have understood perfectly fine what Kennedy wanted to say.  The jelly donut thing is just an urban myth.

I never took the story to mean that Germans didn't understand what he was trying to say-- obviously they would hear it & make an allowance for the fact that JFK wasn't a native Krautspeaker.  I thought it was just meant to be an amusing story about a double-entendre of sorts.

Yeah, that's what I had wondered also, if there was double meaning. But it was obvious that the crowd was pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing no matter what.

[Valmy]

I never took the story to mean that Germans didn't understand what he was trying to say-- obviously they would hear it & make an allowance for the fact that JFK wasn't a native Krautspeaker.  I thought it was just meant to be an amusing story about a double-entendre of sorts.

When I visited Berlin I asked about this and it seems that it was even gramatically correct the way Kennedy said it.  Additionally it would never have even occured to a German living in Berlin that he meant anything else because they do not even call said jelly donuts 'Berliners' in Berlin itself.

Another humorous historical anecdote slain by facts.

[Caliga]

So where did the jelly donut thing come from?  Rush Limbaugh's dad or something?

[Razgovory]

So where did the jelly donut thing come from?  Rush Limbaugh's dad or something?

Probably some liberal commie.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I see old men & women on the bus like that all the time yelling at Chinese people(or anyone vaguely foreign) talking Chinese and having a private conversation... Speak English you're in Canada... If the Oldster gets really annoying I'll yell up at them and tell them to stop screaming retarded things that I can understand. And then just to piss them off further I go on a big Trudeau-esque diatribe about Multi-culturalism.

[Valmy]

Speak English you're in Canada

It would be funny if they then changed to speaking French.

[Valmy]

So where did the jelly donut thing come from?  Rush Limbaugh's dad or something?

I was curious so I clicked on Raz's link and it seems the myth was started in the early 80s sometime and clearly if he had actually made a funny mistake people would have been talking about it at the time.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Speak English you're in Canada

It would be funny if they then changed to speaking French.

If I wasn't so lazy I'd become bilingual just to do that.

[Syt]

Additionally it would never have even occured to a German living in Berlin that he meant anything else because they do not even call said jelly donuts 'Berliners' in Berlin itself.

Indeed they call them "Pfannkuchen", or pancakes. Stupid Berliners.