AND thanks to Google Translate...

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Google Translate error sees Spanish town advertise clitoris festival

Organisers in As Pontes ‘quite surprised’ to learn food festival celebrating Galician vegetable grelo had been mistranslated..

I bet they were a tad surprised ..

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/google-translate-error-as-pontes-spain-clitoris-food-festival-grelo-galicia

[Baruch]

This is why the output of Google Translate is called "gogglish".  Even human translators face these mistakes ... who can forget the translation of President Carter's speech in Poland ... where he was said to "lust after the Polish women"!

[AllPurposeAtheist]

This is why the output of Google Translate is called "gogglish".  Even human translators face these mistakes ... who can forget the translation of President Carter's speech in Poland ... where he was said to "lust after the Polish women"!

Thinking about that point in time with Carter and Poland I watched the movie Jack Strong last night about the Polish colonel  Ryszard KukliÅ,,ski who handed over the Soviet plans to invade Poland to crush the Solidarity movement, same guy who also planned the soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.  Pretty good movie on Netflix.

[jonb]

'Ik bin ein berliner'



Translates as

'I am a doughnut.'

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I'm in favor of clitoris festivals. I'd favor them over Christmas and the easter bunny ..
Happy Clitoris Day ladies..

[Gawdzilla Sama]

'Ik bin ein berliner'



Translates as

'I am a doughnut.'

That's one version of the use of the word. Another is "I am a Berliner".  It was grammatically correct in the usage. Germans are still wondering why we make a fuss about that.

[Baruch]

A "berliner" can be a kind of donut.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A "berliner" can be a kind of donut.

"I am a pastry."  "I am one of you."

Okay, which one did the speech writers want to convey?

BTW, Pappa and pappa in Spanish, one's a father, the other's a potato.

[jonb]

That's one version of the use of the word. Another is "I am a Berliner".  It was grammatically correct in the usage. Germans are still wondering why we make a fuss about that.

Ik bin berliner

means I come from Berlin

Ik bin ein berliner

I am a doughnut

I would like to know which German speakers you have consulted.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Ik bin berliner

means I come from Berlin

Ik bin ein berliner

I am a doughnut

I would like to know which German speakers you have consulted.

I didn't consult any, I just know they did.

[jonb]

Ich Bin ein Berliner

literal word for word translation, I am a Berliner. sounds OK but a German would say Ich Bin Berliner.
The thing is that it is a very common mistake for an english speaker to make.
To say 'I am Berliner' sounds wrong to an english speaker so it is common for english speakers with a smattering of German to add the 'ine' word to the phrase, because without it the phrase sounds to the english speaker as if it is spoken by an ignorant person. However the German 'ien' is not an exact equivalent of the english 'a' which is more used to denote an article than a person.
For the most part this common error made by english speakers makes little difference, much like the babyish way some star wars characters speak they leave out normally used english words but we still understand them.
However Berliner has two meanings a person from Berlin or a doughnut.
So  'Ich Bin Berliner' means I am a person from Berlin, but 'Ich Bin ein Berliner' because the 'ien' directs a german speaker to think about an object automatically preferences the doughnut meaning for the word Berliner.

Thus JFK created a double entendre with the strongest interpretation being 'I am a Doughnut' but because the Germans are nice people, and used to ignorant Americans that know nothing of the world outside their little country forgive the stupidity of the statement and recognising his thick American accent choose to hear what he may have meant rather than what he actually said.

[Baruch]

Kennedy's statement, in the context of the Berlin Wall crisis, was received with acclaim.  And then they broke up the rally and went for coffee and donuts ;-)  I think in context, they knew what he was saying.

So did you study German in school?  I have never been any good at German.  Romance languages come easier to me.

It takes 10,000 hours of steady application to get good at anything, that is 5 work years.  In my experience, one can get passably less incompetent after only 1000 hours of steady application (say at a job).  Other than work, I have yet to put in that much time on any other subject, and it shows!  Jack of all trades, master of none.

[jonb]

I have a good smattering of Yiddish, and terms in other other German dialects which being a Cockney of my age is not uncommon, I lived in France and although my French is appalling I found the trick of how to be understood in most situations, so much so that a lot of French people mistook me for being Dutch.
However my knowledge on this subject like on many others comes from the fact that when you put forward an argument as aggressively as I often do you learn to do your research  well before you make a statement and you don't rely on just one bit of evidence. Thus I can say something contentious and already know how others may react and have the answers ready. As Sun Tzu would say-

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

[jonb]

There is another great story about translations and American presidents.

The reported story of the Bush to Blair conversation.

President Bush, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, and France's President Jacques Chirac were discussing economics and, in particular, the decline of the French economy. "The problem with the French," Bush afterwards confided in Blair, "is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur."

This was leaped on by many on the left, to show what an idiot Bush was, because of course entrepreneur is a word that comes from the French. Many on the right protest it is a made up story just the usual left blackening his name. As far as I know this story has never been reputed by Bush.

I think the story is true, and far from showing Bust to be an idiot I think it shows a very intelligent man who knows how to play with words and their meanings. I also think that fits as to why no reference to the story has to my knowledge been made by Bush.

I think it is commonly thought with some truth that American republican voters do not like intellectuals, and prefer a man of the people. As the son of a president the last thing George would want would be to give of the image of being an intelligent rich boy. Slightly dim son of the earth with a ranch would be a much better strategy.

So 'entrepreneur' yes it was originally a French word, but the way English speaking people use it, it is entirely different from the French meaning of the word, as such what George Bush said was quite a witty joke between two leaders, but of course once the story gets out about their private conversation he could not defend himself from accusations of idiocy without cracking the image of being a man of the people, of the earth.

So the story goes unchallenged.

It is a useful strategy for any leader to appear to be slightly stupid, you don't want your enemies thinking through all your possible moves.

[Atheon]

Ik bin berliner

means I come from Berlin

Ik bin ein berliner

I am a doughnut

I would like to know which German speakers you have consulted.

Good thing he didn't give that speech in Hamburg!