In an important discussion about doughnuts on an ITI list, Herbert Eppel‘s Google search gave me a useful link :

Linguist Jürgen Eichhoff, writing in the academic journal Monatshefte, confirms there was no flub on Kennedy’s part. “‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ is not only correct,” he says, “but the one and only correct way of expressing in German what the President intended to say.”

Thank goodness for that! It’s amazing what hordes of people who don’t speak a word of German love to jump on that bandwagon.

Comments may be ignored or deleted!

If one is to believe the Beck Verlag website, the new German-English volume of Dietl’s law dictionary has appeared in book form and the CD-ROM is promised for the end of July 2005.

Sabine Cretella’s blog, mainly in Italian, but possibly also in English and German (thanks to Sonja).

If a German colleague of yours had a website advertising translations into English, and that colleague used an incorrect word as a big heading, what would you do? Invented example (although I think I’ve seen it): if someone wrote “Right” instead of “Law” as a specialization?

This should be a change from reports about Fürth.

Here is a mural in Upminster Library showing the history and famous inhabitants of Upminster:

This is the work of Terry Ffyffe (sic), an erstwhile Australian. The most interesting famous person, apart from Ian Dury on the right, is William Derham (18th century vicar and scientist).

For studies of the speed of sound (published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society), Derham used a pair of synchronised pocket watches, had his friends fire shotguns at distant visible locations (often neighbouring churches), and observed the interval between the flash and the arrival of the sound with his telescopes and a half-second pendulum up the tower of St.Laurence’s (the doors that he inserted on the south side of the church tower are still visible).

I have most been able to impress with General Oglethorpe, though (O’s parents are buried in St. James’, Piccadilly, but I was unable to locate the plaque to them on a recent visit).

Further images of Upminster: a disappointing Chinese takeaway:

Small supermarket:

Gardening centre, actually not in Upminster but South Ockendon:

Promoting Germany’s Language Melting Pot – Deutsche Welle article

The courses on German language and life don’t sound bad, of course. But what if you don’t play along?

bq. It’s up to the state immigration authorities to decide whether a person’s German isn’t up to scratch. If officials notice that applicants for residence permits or renewals cannot communicate in simple German, they send them to language classes. Officials at unemployment offices can also recommend foreign jobseekers and social welfare recipients for the courses, and if they refuse to take the classes their benefits will be cut.

I think SPD, CDU/CSU and FDP all believe foreigners should be integrated by hook or by crook.

An American translator visiting was expressing surprise a few weeks ago: in the USA, she said, people gradually integrate over a couple of generations, but not by force.

The local paper reports today that two-language classes for Greek children are about to stop. They survived longer than others, which ended in the early 1990s.

Thanks to Trevor, the creator of langwich sandwich.