the term "wench" was Re: HP and rules

[ritadear2]

No: HPFGUIDX 37480

Ali wrote:

"Given that Harry is English, even if he's being read by an 
American audience it doesn't feel quite right to have him use a 
word so utterly wrong for an English boy to say in that context. I 
find it strange that Scholastic can expect their audience to 
understand the idiosyncrasies of prefects/ Head Boys etc etc, but 
then make Harry speak "American"!"

I totally agree.  One of my enormous disappointments when I 
first started reading the HP series to my son was that they had 
been "translated".  Our languages are not that different for pete's 
sake, and I think it is *good* for our kids to be exposed to the 
differences in slang, structure and dialect.  He handled The Wind 
in the Willows fine and Peter Pan (although we omitted "silly 
ass" when reading it to him, lol).  I think I recall quickly switching 
"wench" to "witch" when I read that particular phrase in GoF 
alound to him,( which had no insult quality to it, given the context 
lol) and just left out the "damn's" all together, because there are 
just some certain words that I am not eager to introduce into a 
1st grader's vocabulary. 

But, all in all, I think we're being cheated over here by the 
assumption that we, or our children, can't handle the different 
meanings in words or different phrases.  Give us a break, idiots 
wouldn't be reading HP anyway!

Rita