I’ve been in Germany too long to be really shocked by anything anymore, but last night I had to let my jaw drop. Christopher was watching the Disney-owned TV channel SuperRTL, which was showing a Christmas special from the cartoon “Recess”. According to the German dub, this boy was dressed as a “Christmas Tree” (screenshot from YouTube).
I’m assuming the cause was ignorance rather than anti-Semitism, since I’m sure TV shows are translated quickly rather than carefully. But then again, you never know…
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Geesh, and as a “menorah” goes, it is missing a couple of candles–Menorahs should have 8 candles plus the center one.
Oh my. Poor Harvey Hanukkah. Are they letting monkeys do the translating these days?
You’d think that Germany of all countries would be paying a bit more attention.
Hmm… it may be just a bad translation, but i suppose it’s more a cultural problem than anything else. Most Germans don’t know what a menorah (or Hannukkah for that matter) is. There isn’t a german word for menorah either, so a meaningful translation is difficult. This reminds me of the time when American Football was virtually unknown in Germany and “touchdown” was regularly translated as “Tor” or goal which of course made no sense at all.
I’m gonna go with Martina on this one. Even thought German adults might be clued in on Hannukkah, kids wouldn’t be (or are much less likely to be) and there generally isn’t a whole lot of room in a cartoon for a “teaching moment”.
Hi, bumped into your blog looking for a guide to using magpie. Just my 2p worth, but I’d no idea what the candle thing is or represents, and to me the brown thing on the kids cloak does look like a tree with no leaves, maybe the translators genuinely thought it was a tree with candles on it (like a traditional Christmas tree).
At least I have a better idea of what a menorah is thanks to their bad translation
I wouldn’t be so sure about everyone knowing the word Menorah – I learned it in school, when we had a look on all toe other major religions in religious education class. I guess it depends on which school you go to.
Anyway, the Menorah-pattern on the gown in that picture might be mistaken as a tree, the vertical trunk with three twigs on each side. Just saying… Although I really had to think very hard about that, because it clearly was a Menorah to me.
Maybe the translators are graduates of the “English with Lothar” school. “Hello, togezzer. No one learns you English like I.”
A few seconds before, the show mentions Kwanzaa, which the German soundtrack didn’t try to translate and called “Kwanzaa”.
That suggests another probable cause. The translators didn’t understand or know about America’s tic with alternative winter holidays, and were blindsided by the “Christmas special” making references to Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.