[HPforGrownups] Was US POA audio modified from UK or US print?

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 95302

On 6 Apr 2004 at 0:01, Dina Lerret wrote:

> antoshachekhonte said:
> 
> I take back what I said... I'm being optimistic on the state of education
> in America.

Personally, I think though that part of the 'problem' with American 
education - or rather how American education is perceived by people 
outside the US - is illustrated by the idea of editing the Harry 
Potter books for a US audience.

There is a general perception, I think, in the international 
community, that America contains an unusually high number of people 
who are poorly informed about the outside world, in comparison to 
other western countries. I'm not saying that's fair - but I think 
the perception is there. I know there are a lot of very well-
informed Americans - but, frankly, every few days I encounter some 
incredible ignorance from people, and it disproportionately seems 
to be from Americans. Now, as I don't think there's any reason to 
assume Americans are inherently less intelligent than other people, 
it's obviously not lack of intelligence that makes this happen - 
it's, I think, lack of the same level of exposure to other cultures 
and other countries.

Now, I'm an Aussie - and in terms of language, we Australians have 
a big advantage over those in some other English speaking 
countries. Massive amounts of the television shows shown here are 
American. Very significant numbers are British. We have a fair 
amount of Australian programming as well of course - but the large 
amount of TV from overseas means that most Australians have a 
pretty fair command of both British and American idiom. We 
understand most American, and most British slang - even if we don't 
use it. Some does infiltrate - but even if we don't use it, it's 
often understood.

Australian kids don't have any real problems reading Harry Potter - 
the British edition is standard here.

And that's not because Australian English is identical to British 
English - because it isn't. Especially when it comes to slang - we 
have a very detailed slanguage of our own (although it's not quite 
as extreme as it gets stereotyped). Australian kids pick up kids 
books from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand, etc, etc - and read 
them and understand them, without anybody ever seriously 
considering there is likely to be any need to change the words.

Why can that be done? Simply because we're exposed to these other 
variants of English. And that, to me, makes the editing of Harry 
Potter for US audiences, a little bit worrying - because it seems 
to me that when you edit an English English book into American 
English because American kids supposedly can't handle English 
English - then the cure that has been created is the cause of the 
disease.

Solving the problem, by doing what created the problem... Just 
seems rather odd to me. I understand it as a commercial decision, I 
do - but it really seems awful to me.

It's also... well, rather insulting actually, in my opinion. 
Sometimes language doesn't make that much difference. But sometimes 
it does. It is tied up with your culture.

"Wotcher" - "G'Day" - "Yo!" All can have rather similar meanings - 
but all come from a different type of background. I know they 
didn't change Wotcher and I'm glad of that, because it is a 
cultural reference - and if that had been changed, that would have 
seemed really insulting.

Changing jumper to sweater - far less so - because those words 
don't have as much connection to the root cultures.

As an aside, somewhat connected, I've just been rereading Quidditch 
Theough The Ages, and was pleased to notice that JKR didn't engage 
in the very common British stereotypes of Australia in writing her 
section on Quidditch in Australia.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia