Those forthright Americans (was Re: British Harry more honest?...)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 8439


Another one along the lines of pee/go to the loo:  on the Hogwarts Express 
in PoA/U.S., Ron says "I'm not going to take any crap from Malfoy this year" 
(U.K. has "rubbish").  I nearly jumped out of my seat when that came across 
my speakers.  "Crap" is by far the most off-color word in any of the books 
and it jarred.  Elsewhere "rubbish" is left as is or translated to 
"garbage," I believe, on some occasions.  That seems more equivalent to my 
ears, just as "go to the bathroom" seems to be the politeness-equivalent to 
"go to the loo."

I really am not a fan of doing any British-American "translating."  One of 
the great pleasures of reading C.S. Lewis etc. as a kid was encountering 
different expressions, spellings, etc.  It fed my love of language and 
generated some interesting questions about etymologies (like, how did we get 
from jumper to sweater? or was it vice versa?).

On the other hand, searching out the changes is a fun game in itself!

Amy

- - - - - - - - - -
The Whomping Willow was a very violent tree that stood alone in the middle 
of the grounds.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com