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Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

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Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#201

Post by pikminguy »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #188
pikminguy wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're getting how important the word instant is in this context. An analog clock might be better for decoding an unfamiliar time system. It might be better for teaching children how we count time. It might implicitly contain more information. It might be better in a thousand ways. None of that matters. For whatever reason I get a faster and more accurate sense of what time it is from a digital watch. I…

My experience is different. When I am at the train station I can have an immediate idea of what time is it just looking at the analog clocks around (they are digital displays mimicking analog clocks) even if I can't read the numbers from afar. Digital clocks are harder for me because I have to parse the information: is that a 6, 8, 9, or zero? It doesn't make much difference in the end, bit having to actually read th…

Oh absolutely. Your experience is in line with what Douglas Adams was originally saying. Plenty of people get a better sense of time from analog displays.

I'm not saying digital works better for everyone. I'm not even saying digital works better for most. It could easily be the case that I'm in the 1% of weirdos who have an easier time with digital. My only point is that it isn't universal either way. Adams said digital watches are silly because everyone gets a better sense of time from analog. It is a funny joke. But he is wrong about the facts.

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#202

Post by parenthesis »

js2 wrote: post #69
pikminguy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you're right that analog watches are better tools that's not what Adams was saying. "We all know, really, that [analog clock face] is a lot more instantly meaningful to us than 15:39" which is just wrong. Plenty of people, myself included, get more instant meaning from a digital readout.

Funny you should use 15:39 as your example. I find the translation I have to do from 15:39 to 3:39 pm to have much more friction than reading a digital or analog clock in the first place, both of which I can do with equal ease. The problem of course is that I'm not used to 24-hour times, so I don't equate 15 with any particular time of day. Similar to how I have to translate C to F to make sense of C temperatures. No…

In the context of hours of time, I perceive `15' as just an alternative symbol for `3pm'.

Likewise, I perceive 1539 as an alternative symbol for 1536, as I like to keep my clocks three minutes fast.

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#203

Post by monknomo »

jawns wrote: post #7

His argument about digital watches did not age well. My kids have known how to understand a digital clock since they were toddlers, but even now, in elementary school, they require entire lesson units in school on telling time from a clock face. Beyond that, he argues that pie charts tell us more about the relationship between things than tables of numbers, and a clock face is "the world's most perfect pie chart." Bu…

Sure it does - for example the portion of the hour in front of the minute hand's sweep is "in the future" whereas the portion of the hour behind the minute hand's sweep is "in the past" and the portion of the hour under the minute hand is "now".

Three categories, and the distribution of the current hour's minutes between them

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#204

Post by kyle-rb »

mordechai9000 wrote: post #111

I've always been annoyed they replaced "Philosopher's Stone" with "Sorcerer's Stone" in the title of the Harry Potter novel, for American consumption. It feels kinda of insulting, frankly. I recently and randomly picked up a Japanese book, 1Q84. I was enjoying it quite a bit, when I started thinking about the cultural references it contained - it has numerous references to Western classical music and Sean Connery. It…

> It worried me that they might have actually replaced Japanese music and actors with western "equivalents".

There's a weird inverse to this in the manga/anime Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Many of the characters and their special abilities are named after well known American bands and songs (e.g. Steely Dan, Killer Queen, Crazy Diamond). But when localized, many have been censored due to potential rights issues. So Killer Queen becomes Deadly Queen, which is kind of sad since the references make me appreciate the cultural cross pollination you mentioned.

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#205

Post by pessimizer »

joemi wrote: post #180
pessimizer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plenty of people, myself included, get more instant meaning from a digital readout. More from outside knowledge than from the digital readout itself. There's no way to tell from a digital readout there are 60 minutes in an hour or seconds in a minute, or that there's a 12-hour period that means something (and no hints to guess.) There's no evidence that the time represented on a digital readout changes at a constan…

> If you found an alien digital clock written in alien language, it would take you forever to figure out anything about it; it would take a while to figure out anything useful even if you knew it was a clock. If you found an alien analog clock, it would be immediately obvious what it was and what it was doing, and you could use it to help you understand the alien digital clock. I disagree with this. This seems to ass…

The only assumption is that analog means a gauge of some sort with a pointer or pointers moving between symbols, rather than a series of symbols that change for digital. I wouldn't have any problem with assuming a circular gauge (because we calculate periodic things using circle math), but it's not necessary.

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#206

Post by jetbooster »

sarchertech wrote: post #143

By far the stupidest Americanization I've encountered is when Netflix changed "The Great British Bake Off" to "The Great British Baking Show". They are honestly recording 2 versions of every intro for this?

I saw a current events comedy show filmed live in the UK (The Last Leg), and they filmed two intros because the Australian network which bought the rights to rebroadcast couldn't afford the rights for the theme music. It was bizarre.

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#207

Post by pessimizer »

pikminguy wrote: post #179
pessimizer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plenty of people, myself included, get more instant meaning from a digital readout. More from outside knowledge than from the digital readout itself. There's no way to tell from a digital readout there are 60 minutes in an hour or seconds in a minute, or that there's a 12-hour period that means something (and no hints to guess.) There's no evidence that the time represented on a digital readout changes at a constan…

I don't think you're getting how important the word instant is in this context. An analog clock might be better for decoding an unfamiliar time system. It might be better for teaching children how we count time. It might implicitly contain more information. It might be better in a thousand ways. None of that matters. For whatever reason I get a faster and more accurate sense of what time it is from a digital watch. I…

> Therefor the assertion that an analog readout is more instantly meaningful for everyone is wrong.

Maybe I'm confused about the assertion. The sentence "A picture with a bird in it" is more quickly recognized by very fluent English speakers than an actual picture of a bird. But it conveys far less information to a far narrower audience.

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#208

Post by jfk13 »

beaconstudios wrote: post #199
spoils19 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American version is more accurate and arguably better - I like to think the title was changed for our heightened intelligence and not the opposite.

The philosopher's stone was a specific historical idea, the catalyst that would allow alchemists to create the elixir of life.

Or transmute base metals into gold.

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#209

Post by kuang_eleven »

It's interesting, I actually do think there is value in regionalizing media to an extent, primarily low-level word change between dialects. For example, changing "Go throw the wellies in the boot of the car parked on the pavement before we get petrol" to "Go throw the rainboots in the trunk of the car parked on the sidewalk before we get gas" for an American audience. Higher-level changes are less justifiable, like the potential of changing landmarks, etc.

That being said, "disused lavatory" is reasonable to change, although "unused lavatory" is entirely the wrong way to do it! That translation both changes the meaning of the phrase and doesn't even get rid of the obvious Britishism. I would have gone for "derelict bathroom" maybe? Maybe "dilapidated"?

Re: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)

#210

Post by not1ofU »

technothrasher wrote: post #56
tombert wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how did it lose charm by switching to American accents and localisms? I'm not disagreeing (I'm a bit too old for Bob the Builder and I don't have kids), I'm genuinely curious.

I think it was mostly because we were used to the voice actors they had been using. The new ones just didn't fit the characters as well. I'm not sure it was an American vs British thing, I think it was more likely 1) you like what you were introduced to, and 2) they hired less qualified voice actors and re-writers to do the cheap dubbing than they originally did when they cast the show.

Sounds like watching The Simpsons with dubbing - interesting for a brief moment, but then you want the original.
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