JFK in Berlin

 The story that John F. Kennedy made a major German language blunder in his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in Berlin, Germany. The story goes that he should have said "Ich bin Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin"), and that "Ich bin ein Berliner" really means "I am a jelly doughnut." (A "Berliner" is in fact a type of jelly doughnut made in Berlin.) One of my German instructors even claimed this is true, and I once saw it published in a major American magazine, although I forget which one.
 President Kennedy said the phrase absolutely correctly, although possibly with a thick American accent. It seems that the German language is simply not that trivial — it has subtleties that very few non-native speakers grasp.