I got a DVD of my kid’s favourite show. It includes sing-along and karaoke features, which consist of the same song with the lyrics highlighted on the screen (only in karaoke the singers are muted out). I was horrified to see the following in the printed lyrics on the screen:
Simon says move faster now.
If he see’s you stop, your out!
There were several similar errors, and I was really shocked. All over the case, all through the intro, and again in the “Parents” feature, they beat over your head how it’s an educational show, developed by experts, blah blah.
Any professional piece out there should be triple checked for spelling and grammar. A video for children, meant to teach them the language, deserves 10 times the attention. Any minimal error is inexcusable. There is one Baby Einstein video that has several errors in the spanish language. That was the last one we go.
I don’t know, but just adding that for karaoke it might be better to use common grammatical errors if the meaning and word recognition is improved by doing so.
The word
sees
is one such that’s identity is more apparent by spelling it
see’s
IMHO
It’s not grammatical, but on one of the Small Girl’s Wiggles DVDs, they sing a song about going to the Dublin Zoo, and one of the lyrics goes “We saw the tigers on the African track…”
Tigers, huh? In Africa?
Maybe the guys at the Dublin Zoo were into the whiskey when they placed the animals in the various pavilions, but I imagine they’d have fixed it by now. Come on.
It’s not a big deal and the Wiggles are great, but that one makes me cringe.
Ah well, it was inevitable. In my defence, however, I am not claiming to be an expert in child development and education, nor charging you $30 for the honour.
Well, it’s not really a grammatical error, anyway. It’s an orthographic error–someone has bad spelling/punctuation. It’s a dumb error, more of an oversight, but your kid will survive.
I’d worry more about the lead and pthalats in toys.
I certainly wouldn’t be happy, but I wouldn’t be horrified either. It’s a DVD out solely for profit, not a textbook sanctioned by the Board of Education. You get what you pay for. I’d just explain to my child that it’s not correct. (You know, your child is going to take your word over some DVD…at least I hope.)
But then, I don’t put much stock into the educational value of “educational” videos in the first place:
Yes, they’re entertaining, usually, but so are the Teletubies.
I think I will. I wasn’t sure if I was being ridiculous or not, but as Sapo said, any professional piece really should be checked better than this.
Thanks for the input, everyone.
