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

[Agelastus]

Jesus christ, Yi how much koolaid have you drunk?  The Jelly Doughnut thing is myth in the US.

Absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

The "jelly doughnut thing" that Raz is referring to is presumably the urban legend concerning John F Kennedy's "Ich Bin ein Berliner" speech.

[Admiral Yi]

The "jelly doughnut thing" that Raz is referring to is presumably the urban legend concerning John F Kennedy's "Ich Bin ein Berliner" speech.

That's what I figured.  I don't get the urban legend/myth part.

[Rex Francorum]

I imagine if I were giving a press conference and some tool started asking questions in Swedish I might look askance.  But he handled it very poorly.  Typical Teutonic behavior.  Next come the panzers.

If I spoke Swedish, I would not look askance, I would just answer his question. If I was fluent, I would do so in Swedish, otherwise in English and leave it to the translators.

What is so hard about that?

Eurocommies are sensitive to Anglophone's preponderance in global politics.

Canadians too since I see no big deal.

[C.C.R.]

The reporter was being a weenie.  Go ahead and ask the question directly in English, if Herr Homosexual wants to respond directly he can, in crappy English or in German, or he can wait for the translation.  It's not the reporter's place to specify which language he/she wants the response in.

I kind of interpreted the situation as the reporter was just fishing for a soundbite in English to score some kind of scoop & Guido didn't feel like playing along, so he weaseled out of an awkward situation awkwardly.  I've got no problem with that.  It's not like Guido put the reporter on the first train East or anything...

[MadImmortalMan]

I love the fact that when you type "Guido Westerwelle" into google search, it helpfully suggests that the third word of the search should be "schwul".

The greens being derogatory, no doubt.

[DontSayBanana]

Jesus christ, Yi how much koolaid have you drunk?  The Jelly Doughnut thing is myth in the US. 

Raz, the "Ich bin ein Berliner" thing was 100% bona fide.  What happened is the usual rule for saying you're a native of a city in German is to add "-er" to the end: "Ich bin ein Rotenburger," etc.  The problem is that Berlin is an exception because of that specific "jelly donut" mixup; in the case of Berlin, he should have said, "Ich bin aus Berlin."  It's an urban myth that it was a national embarrassment- only to linguists and German language students; you can see pretty clearly in the video footage (how much koolaid have YOU been drinking, Raz?) that the crowd still loves the speech anyway.

[Admiral Yi]

Raz, the "Ich bin ein Berliner" thing was 100% bona fide.  What happened is the usual rule for saying you're a native of a city in German is to add "-er" to the end: "Ich bin ein Rotenburger," etc.  The problem is that Berlin is an exception because of that specific "jelly donut" mixup; in the case of Berlin, he should have said, "Ich bin aus Berlin."  It's an urban myth that it was a national embarrassment- only to linguists and German language students; you can see pretty clearly in the video footage (how much koolaid have YOU been drinking, Raz?) that the crowd still loves the speech anyway.

Is that right?  I thought the rule in German was no article ever.

[DontSayBanana]

Is that right?  I thought the rule in German was no article ever.

Actually, German's pretty article-happy, since nouns are gendered- the article indicates which gender, but the difference in this case is a preposition; it would be between saying "I'm an American" (Ich bin Amerikanner) and "I'm from America" (Ich bin aus Amerika).

Der Vater = the father; masculine
Die Mutter = the mother; feminine
Das Fenster = the window; neuter

[Admiral Yi]

Actually, German's pretty article-happy, since nouns are gendered- the article indicates which gender, but the difference in this case is a preposition; it would be between saying "I'm an American" (Ich bin Amerikanner) and "I'm from America" (Ich bin aus Amerika).

Der Vater = the father; masculine
Die Mutter = the mother; feminine
Das Fenster = the window; neuter

Nononono.  I meant for places of origin.  Like I thought it was "Ich bin Deutschlander" and "Ich bin Frankfurter" rather than "Ich bin ein Deutschlander."

[dps]

The reporter was being a weenie.  Go ahead and ask the question directly in English, if Herr Homosexual wants to respond directly he can, in crappy English or in German, or he can wait for the translation.  It's not the reporter's place to specify which language he/she wants the response in.

I kind of interpreted the situation as the reporter was just fishing for a soundbite in English to score some kind of scoop & Guido didn't feel like playing along, so he weaseled out of an awkward situation awkwardly.  I've got no problem with that.  It's not like Guido put the reporter on the first train East or anything...

Yeah, if a foreign-language reporter in the US asked Hillary a question in the reporter's language, I wouldn't have a problem with her asking him to speak English.  And I wouldn't have a problem with the Uzbek foreign minister wanting to be addressed in Uzbek while in Uzbekistan, either.

[derspiess]

Nononono.  I meant for places of origin.  Like I thought it was "Ich bin Deutschlander" and "Ich bin Frankfurter" rather than "Ich bin ein Deutschlander."

That's my understanding, from German 101 in college.  The instructor even used the 'jelly doughnut' reference as an example.

[derspiess]

Why don't you love me, then? I'm European, I'm gay and I hate muslims, too.

You abandoned true liberalism for leftism years ago.  And you have Americans more than muslims

[Razgovory]

Jesus christ, Yi how much koolaid have you drunk?  The Jelly Doughnut thing is myth in the US. 

Raz, the "Ich bin ein Berliner" thing was 100% bona fide.  What happened is the usual rule for saying you're a native of a city in German is to add "-er" to the end: "Ich bin ein Rotenburger," etc.  The problem is that Berlin is an exception because of that specific "jelly donut" mixup; in the case of Berlin, he should have said, "Ich bin aus Berlin."  It's an urban myth that it was a national embarrassment- only to linguists and German language students; you can see pretty clearly in the video footage (how much koolaid have YOU been drinking, Raz?) that the crowd still loves the speech anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#Jelly_doughnut_urban_legend 

[DontSayBanana]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#Jelly_doughnut_urban_legend 

Raz, ein paar von uns haben Deutsch gelernt, und ein paar mehr sprechen es am ersten. Bitte sag uns nicht über Deutsch mit Angeboten von Wiki.

[Zanza]

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.