US translation explained by Scholastic (no spoiler here)

[slytherin_dragoon1]

I think a better idea would have been to make the American and British
versions identical, but to have added a glossary of "Britishisms" at
the end for those Americans unfamiliar with such words and phrases.


--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at y...> wrote:
> Auror Tonks on special assignment reporting in:
> 
> I wrote to a customer care person at Scholastic regarding the extra 
> line in the US version of the books. She did not answer my question 
> fully, which is par for the course with customer care people, but 
> what she did say was interesting and I am sharing it here.  I am 
> sure that this is one of those canned responses that customer care 
> people love to give, but still it tells us something.
> 
> ---------
> Thank you very much for your recent email.  We're delighted that
you 
> are such an enthusiastic fan of the "Harry Potter" series.
> 
> We would like to point out that no changes are now, or have ever 
> been made to the text without the complete participation and 
> approval of the author, J.K. Rowling. The philosophy of the 
> translations was always to give the American reader the same 
> experience--or as close to the same experience as possible--as the 
> British reader. In other words, the books should feel very
> British. There would never be wholesale "Americanization." Changes 
> would be as few as possible. However, we felt that the readers 
> should be perplexed only when the author wants them to be
perplexed, 
> they should notice the slang only when the author wants them to 
> notice the slang, and at no other times. When the Scholastic
editors 
> were brought up short by a word or phrase, they would query it to 
> the author and would either come up with an alternative British 
> phrase (not necessarily an "American" phrase), find an
> acceptable translation understandable to American readers, or we 
> would leave it as is.
> 
> It was our guess--now borne out by experience--that American
readers 
> would become progressively more familiar with the magical world
that 
> Ms. Rowling had created, more familiar, and thus would be better 
> oriented and less likely to be confused by individual language 
> differences. Therefore, there have been progressively 
> fewer "translations" to the point where the US and UK texts are 
> virtually identical now.
> 
> We truly appreciate your interest in J.K. Rowling and her 
> wonderful "Harry Potter" series. And as always . . . Thank you for 
> choosing Scholastic!
> 
> Sincerely,
> ----------------