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This, boys & girls, is why pronunciation… | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 1 of 19 07 December 2009 at 11:00am | IP Logged | ||
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…matters.
Toys recalled due to poor pronunciation It seems that British stores were selling a toy, made in China, that is shaped like a mouse and sings "Jingle Bells". Unfortunately, the Chinese person who recorded his voice for the toy was unable to pronounce the English words correctly, and it sounded like he was singing "pedophile, pedophile". Needless to say, buyers were not impressed, and the toy has been recalled. Edited by Keith on 07 December 2009 at 9:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| burgler09 Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6050 days ago 72 posts - 88 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 2 of 19 07 December 2009 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2760619/Mouse-toy- recalled-over-claims-it-sings-paedophile.html
here's the working link, and that is funny :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Shadow1984 Groupie United States Joined 5491 days ago 53 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 19 07 December 2009 at 11:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't hear pedophile at all. Neither did I hear jingle bells, but the idea of the mouse singing pedophile is funny.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5840 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 19 07 December 2009 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my opinion (and that of many others) pedophiles are to 21st century people what witches once were to Europeans, or Communists to Americans...
Sure they exist and they are bad, but the paranoia is completely out of proportion! Lately peoples' fear of pedohiles is taken advantage of by various private and public organisations to spy on peoples internet usage, and as an excuse to target filesharers, or even frame people who in all likelyhood are not in fact pedophiles. I.e. politically / financially motivated accusations. (There have been some cases of this in Britain recently,) I didn't listen to the recording but if an adult native speaker (above) can't hear it, then it's probably not there... And how many kids even know the word "peadophile"? Even the mouse was clearly saying "peadophile" it would mean nothing to the kid. Anyway - people should buy locally produced toys if at all possible! :-) (.....or maybe it's an evil plot by evil Chinese to indoctrinate kids into liking peadophiles... hehehehehe..... ) 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 19 07 December 2009 at 1:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree, Cordelia, that pedophilia is the new moral panic that is used to do all sorts of terrible things you describe
and more. Back to the story at hand, surely it would have saved money to record a native speaker singing Jingle Bells than to do a half-hearted job and pay for a recall of the entire line. Edited by Captain Haddock on 07 December 2009 at 1:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5840 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 6 of 19 07 December 2009 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Yeah.. but this kind of thing is the backside of globalisation and extreme commercialism, and not the worst one either. The Chinese manufacturers might not have had the time, finances, know-how or ability to find a suitable native English speaker in the backwaters of South China or wherever the doll was made... Doing that might have added a few pennies to the price of the doll and made it less competitive to large Western chains that were considering buying it for distribution via their outlets.. Tesco, Walmart etc.. The parents who bought this doll should consider "you get what you pay for..." They might also ask themselves "Will my childs life in any way be improved by having a small synthetic Chinese made doll that sings "jingle bells" when you squeeze its' tummy?" (and has been freighted 1000s miles to be sold for £2.50...) Perhaps they can sing Jingle Bells to their kids themselves, or just listen out for it on the radio. This wouldn't have happened if they had bought a locally produced doll at a price that better reflected real value of the labour input! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| commo Newbie United States Joined 5513 days ago 13 posts - 20 votes Speaks: French | Message 7 of 19 07 December 2009 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Who believes anything that is found in the Sun?
And it really is a sad day when the BBC repeats a story that originated there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 19 07 December 2009 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I definitely heard "pedophile" in that video.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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