Does Viktor Krum become an important character?

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 118877


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mommystery2003" 
<mommystery at h...> wrote:

Ces:
>  I find it hard 
> to believe that they brought in Fleur's (another character I don't 
> like!) sister but couldn't bring in someone Krum has known much 
> longer?  This is a magical world after all, and getting a person 
> there wouldn't be too much of an effort.  I don't think Fleur's 
> sister was there the entire time, but who knows?
> > 
>  
> > Del replies :
> > Don't be so hard on him. He's a foreigner remember ? I happen to 
be a
> > transplant myself : there are names in this country I have a 
very hard
> > time pronouncing, and many people have a hard time pronouncing my
> > name. My in-laws even had to invent a more local-sounding 
variation 
> of my name, because they just couldn't get it ! There are different
> > sounds, different spellings, and so on, and all of those can 
really
> > create barriers.
> > Viktor strikes me as not being particularly gifted on a 
linguistic
> > level (well, pretty much all foreigners seem to share in that 
> weakness
> > in the Potterverse - I mean, Fleur didn't even figure out the 
use of
> > the letter H in English after spending several months at 
> Hogwarts !),
> > so I would think we could cut him some slack.

Ces: 
> 
> My point here is though, most people take time to learn a correct 
> pronounciation of someone's name.  And Hermione isn't all that 
> difficult to say after a few times.  I know I personally make it a 
> point to find out how to pronounce a difficult name, just as I 
> appreciate it when people do the same with mine!  LOL
> 
> Ces - who thinks she and Del will just have to agree to disagree 
> about Viktor Krum!

Renee:
I also disagree with you... Has it occured to you that some people 
are unable to pronounce certain sounds in foreign languages because 
their own language doesn't *have* those sounds? (AFAIK, neither 
French nor Bulgarian have the English H-sound.) Sometimes people 
simply can't hear a sound foreign to their own language well enough 
to reproduce it. Babies and young children can aquire any phonetic 
system, but if the language they grow up in lacks particular sounds, 
their ability to produce them gradually diminishes and sometimes is 
lost altogether. Whether someone will succeed to learn such sounds 
at a later age often depends on their ear for music, but that is 
something you have or don't have. Would you dislike people for being 
tone-deaf?   

Renee