Translation and Cultural Issues - UK and US differences

[tangawarra1]

No: HPFGUIDX 34179

This may be a dumb question - but how do readers in the US feel about 
the slight translations that have occurred in the US versions? the 
most obvious being the PS / SS substitution (if anyone can shed any 
light on why "philosopher" was not deemed appropriate for the US 
market i'd greatley appreciate it - i'm very curious). 

In australia we have the UK version with no translation or 
substitution even though our form of spoken english is a little 
different to the UK and the US. (our spelling does conform to the UK 
standard however). 

I guess what i'm trying to ask is - is the reading experience 
affected by changing small sections of the text? I've had a look at a 
few of the lists of substitutions and can't see why "baker's" would 
be changed to "Bakery" when the stem of the word at least is the 
same. Simarly "bogey flavoured" and "booger flavoured" surely its 
still obvious what we are talking about here (in australia its known 
as snot or sometimes boogies(usually by very young children), but a 
translation was not thought necessary.

anyway - I'm just interested in others' perspective on this - do big 
HP fans prefer one version over another??

rachel

[Mod Note: Newer members may want to search the message archives for older members' thoughts on this -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hpforgrownups/messages --John]


--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "racjom" <racjom at y...> wrote:
 
> I'm from Slovenia and I must say that I'm quite happy with our 
> translation. It does have certain little problems and there are 
some differences and of course the original is better, but I like it 
> anyway.