June 25, 2007
The perils of multiculturalism 3
Jacob has a new DVD, a Dora the Explorer one. While the English version has smatterings of spanish the Dutch version has english as it's second language. Often while working in the Netherlands I was confronted with colleagues who had learnt enough English at school (which is compulsory there) to feel confident enough to translate documents themselves. This can lead to interesting usages as there are certain things that only a native-speaker or someone who has lived within a culture will know about use of certain phrases etc.
In the Dora adventure of the Prince and the Frog this seems to have been the case. There are some obvious literal translations, "Anybody help me" when it should be "Somebody help me" for example, but more alarmingly one instance where the usuage is just plain innapropriate.
In order to cross the crocodile lake Dora has to ask the crocodiles to close their snout's allowing her to walk over them. The initial translation into english is borderline; "Shut your mouth, please", only the 'please' softening an otherwise startling phrase in the mouth of a pre-schooler. But it gets worse. After asking the first crocodile to "Shut your mouth please", Dora switches to what someone obviously felt was the less formal version and tells the following four crocodiles in turn to "Shut up", "Shut up", "Shut up" etc.
It's a daunting thought that Dutch pre-schoolers are being taught to say "Shut up", a phrase most native english speakers would find unaceptable in a pre-schooler. It's even more daunting trying to explain to Jacob why he MUST NOT use this phrase when he goes to creche or anywhere else. Why it's OK for Dora to use it, (apparently) whereas if he uses it he will end up being isolated in the baby-room at creche, just like that-Nicholas-who-uses 'bad words'.
Posted by Faith