[HPforGrownups] US/English Versions

[Ambir Adams]

No: HPFGUIDX 34352

>From: "~ chappnee ~" <chappnee at hotmail.com>
>Well I think I have the ideal position here.  I live in Canada so saying so
>would mean that I'm extremely familiar or, at most, talk with American
>slang.  As most of you might know, Canada's version of the books was the
>British version and I have to tell you, that even though I had no idea what
>a prefect was (I'm assuming that it is a common term in Britain?), what
>'bogies' were, and what she meant by 'jumper', it wasn't the hardest thing
>in the world to figure out.


I'm an almost (Feb 21 is my birthday) 25 year old American and I find it 
slightly insulting that the British publishers or is it the American 
publishers that get the books from the British publishers well anyway which 
ever publisher it is they don't give us enough credit in knowing what these 
words mean. I like reading novels by British authors that haven't been 
changed to fit American slang, it helps you get into the world of the story 
and makes it more real in your imagination, you can actually get into the 
culture. And it's really fun.

It seems we have a lot of misconceptions about America vs Britian. I'm sure 
most British when they think of American's the think of Stupid people and 
people who have no culture.  When most American's think of British (not 
me)they think of an emotionless culture who doesn't like to have fun.  But 
we all know that is so not true.  Both our countries have their own Stupids. 
  Most people that read HP books are adults and they read them to their 
children, if a kid doesn't understand a word the adult explains what it 
means.

And if some American adults don't understand what a word means it's not that 
difficult to figure it out from the description JKR gives you.  She seems to 
know that other cultures will find it difficult to understand so she gives 
really good descriptions of what they are without changing the word.  The 
publishers should have just left the words "as is" it would add more to the 
fun of reading. I hope when book five gets here that they don't changed 
anything into American slang.

>The point is, you don't have to know every word/slang
>term in a book to enjoy reading them and JKR does a pretty good job of
>hinting at what they mean anyway.  A whole chunk of the story is Harry
>experiencing a huge culture shock.  If Americans are able to adapt to the
>Wizarding culture with Harry, then why aren't they capable of getting used
>to British culture? - Would be my question to scholasitc.  Maybe if someone
>outside of scholastic were to taunt them saying, "Canadians can do it, what
>makes you think Americans can't?" would have changed their mind because now
>it is a question of pride which I believe is a weak spot.  I think he
>totally misjudged the capabilities of the American public because the way I
>see it, there isn't that much of a difference between Canadians and
>Americans except that Americans present themselves as being unintelligent -
>maybe they are, I don't know, but I doubt they are _that_ stupid - and 
>maybe
>Canadians are a little more reserved.

Um you Canadians are American's too in a way.  We as Americans are not a 
stupid culture, don't base us on what you see on TV.  Jerry Springer shows a 
bunch of actors getting paid to act like idiots on TV.

>Anyway, what I loved most about the book was the fact that it was
>British.  In some cases, I had to laugh because the characters seemed so,
>so, British!  (It is a good thing, for those who might take offense if not
>otherwise told so.)  I also liked seeing it written with the " 'u' spice " 
>in
>the word 'flavour'.  It's my little pet-peeve.  I can't understand why
>Americans would drop the 'u' in flavour.  It just doesn't look right!

I too like seeing those words written with the U it does add spice to the 
novel I agree with you on that 110% (I have two British friends and one of 
them has the British version and it seems so much better than mine, you guys 
even get the really cool covers, we get some lame drawing that I don't 
like.)

I just hope that I haven't offended anyone, thanks for listening (reading)

Ryoko (AKA Ambir)
------
*Sitting on a huge ship spreading the word of H/Hr around the world.  
Several flags are waving H/Hr rules!! H/Hr forever!!

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