I’ve seen this quote, probably in someone’s signature here, that goes something like “70% how you look, 20% how you sound, 10% what you say”. Who said this? Under what circumstances was it said??
While I don’t doubt this is true, I wonder if there have been any studies to support this statement. How would they determine the percentages?
Thanks.
In regards to what? Picking up women? Arguing a case before the Supreme Court?
Frankly I think this is likely one of those off-the-cuff ‘truisms’ that have no basis in fact.
If there is any truth to it likely it only applies in the first few minutes of dealing with someone. After that I think the numbers could get skewed all over the place. I don’t think Hitler was a looker but what he said certainly got a helluva lot of people all jazzed up. Abraham Lincoln was definitely not a good looking person and by all accounts his voice wasn’t all that melodic but again, what the guy had to say was pretty powerful.
An example I know:
Comedian Eddie Izzard in his “Dressed to Kill” stand up show for HBO said the line. He used it twice. Once to say that it didn’t really matter what exactly you said as the words to the US National Anthem. As long as you looked like you knew what you were saying and said it confidently, you could away with almost anything.
Later on, he told a story about Kennedy in Germany. During a speech, he big famous line was supposed to be “I am a Berliner” in german, but the actual translation was “I am a doughnut”. The crowd appearently appreciated the speech and heard what they expected to hear, instead of what was actually said. Don’t know how accurate that story really is.
Last note on this, if you see the show coming up on HBO, watch it. It is brilliant. Very intelligent stand up. The best show I have seen in the last couple of years.
[hijack]
Eddie Izzard rules! The fool has me rolling on the ground holding my sides.
If you want some other great comedy, check out Carlos Media on HBO. Makes me cry laugh-tears every time.
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It was when Kennedy visited shortly after the Berlin Wall was errected. He wanted to indicated his solidarity with the people of Berlin by saying he, too, was a Berliner. Some translator must’ve messed up, because auf Deutsch:
“Ich bin Berliner”=“I am a resident of Berlin”
“Ich bin ein Berliner”=“I am a jelly doughnut”
You see, “Berliner” was slang for a donught, and in German, you don’t need an indefinite article ahead of an adjective that describes your nationality/place of origin. It’s a small error, and I’m sure the people who listened to his speach understood what he meant and appreciated his sentiment.
As much as I love Eddie Izzard myself Kennedy never said he was a donut. It sounded like it because he spoke crappy German. It’s a pretty popular belief he said it but he didn’t.
[swat]I just wacked me some ignorance[\swat]
The 70 / 20 / 10 claim is much recycled by people who promote courses on ‘body language’ and similar pseudo-sciences. Of course, the way in which we inter-act wth one another invlves many factors, with the words we speak only being part of the whole picture. However, I have never seen any serious attempt to actually caculate these percentages, and I suspect it’s just a catchy phrase with very little substance to back it up.
Kennedy’s German was rendered correctly. He did not say “I am a jelly doughnut”. See this post and the next one for links:
Actually, it is right to claim that Kennedy’s actual words meant “I am a jelly doughnut” - or to be precise, as correct as claiming that they meant “I am a citizen of Berlin”. He actually said “Ich bin ein Berliner” - strictly speaking, the use of the definite article (“ein”) turns the sentence from “I am from Berlin” to “I am a doughnut”, no two ways about it. The sentence was not rendered correctly, grammatically speaking.
However, allowing a bit of slack with the grammar is in order (the translation was provided by a German, after all) - it was obvious from the context what Kennedy meant.
So: urban legend - NO.
Exaggerated tale - yes.
So I assume that in German, the jelly is implied?
>> the jelly is implied
yep, it’s called a “continental breakfast”
Achernar - kind of. What Americans call a “jelly doughnut” (or “jam doughnut” for Brits) is known as “ein (gefüllter) Berliner” in German.
“Berliner” means “doughnut”; the “gefüllter” means “filled”. Commonly, though, a jam-filled doughnut is just refered to as a “Berliner” - we expect the jam to be there!
The 70/20/10 equation sounds like it would apply to a job interview.
My German teacher taught me that a Berliner is called such because it originated in Berlin as the Hamburger is called such because it originated in Hamburg.
And of course in English, the ham is implied.