Translation and Cultural Issues - UK and US differences

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 34200

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "jrober4211" <midwife34 at a...> wrote:
>    I have never read the original versions, but it irritates me to no 
> end that the American publishing company assumed that the US 
> population was too ignorant to follow the British slang used in the 
> original versions. The only reason that I can think of that this was 
> done  is because, statistically speaking, US students are behind in 
> reading comprehension and other areas when compared to their European 
> and Japanese counterparts, but that is only my assumption. I am sure 
> that the American publishing company must have done market studies 
> before hiring someone to go through the text and change certain words 
> so that they would be familiar to US children. . . .  what 
> areas of the country, what statistical information,  and what age 
> groups were used for this market study?

Sorry, Jo Ellen, you are SERIOUSLY overestimating the decision-making process 
over at Scholastic!  One of their VP's took it upon himself to dumb-down 
Rowling's text on the ASSUMPTION that it needed to be done because US kids 
should have the same "evperience" in reading it that British kids did.    In other 
words, don't make them stretch or learn anything.  As I recall from the 
no-longer-available interview, he claims to have sat down with JKR and gotten her 
approval for each change.   But at that point in her career, she was in no position 
to assert herself about it!

Scholastic ships over 1 million books PER DAY.  With such idiots playing major 
roles in the company, I suspect that Scholastic is a significant contributor to the 
decline of American educational standards, along with the many others who make 
educational policy and decisions without the solid evidence that you so 
generously assume they seek.