Linguistic DVD discrimination
Dec. 16th, 2004 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
franceslievensMy first day of Christmas shopping closed with a beautiful present for me: the extended DVD boxset of The Lord of the Rings. I walked into Fnac and was immediately drawn towards the piles of DVD boxes. "Oh!" I squeeled, "Only 78.95!" That's almost half of what the newspaper gave as recommended price (€150). Then I realised I was fingering Le Seigneur des Anneaux. Not really my cup of tea; I'd rather have it subtitled in a language I call my own. So I walk on to the next pile, also in green price, but the box-sets in this one have a jacket that states what's on it in Dutch. "That's better," I think, "it'll cost me 98.95!"
In one country people speak two languages and therefore DVD's come out in two different versions. I'm used to it. Dutch speaking people want the original title on the box, French speaking people prefer the translated title. Okay, that's fine with me. If the industry wants to go through the extra trouble of making different editions I can't be bothered less. But I'm more than a bit pissed off that because I'm part of a smaller language group I've got to pay more for the same amount of film!
In one country people speak two languages and therefore DVD's come out in two different versions. I'm used to it. Dutch speaking people want the original title on the box, French speaking people prefer the translated title. Okay, that's fine with me. If the industry wants to go through the extra trouble of making different editions I can't be bothered less. But I'm more than a bit pissed off that because I'm part of a smaller language group I've got to pay more for the same amount of film!
