[etni] Have monkey, will travel

Have monkey, will travel
Haaretz - December 8, 2006

She's got dark hair and eyes, a pet monkey and is currently the most famous 
Anglo in the country - at least among the under-7 set. Dora the Explorer, 
the Hispanic-American animation character who stars in her own hit TV show 
teaching Spanish to preschoolers, has been reincarnated in Israel as "Dora 
Hametayelet," who teaches her young Hebrew-speaking audience basic words and 
phrases in her native tongue of English.

"To our audience, Dora is a native English-speaker," states Galya Halaui, 
head of acquisitions and program schedule at Hop!, the Israeli preschool 
cable and satellite television channel that broadcasts the program locally. 
"They know she's bilingual and she has a 'Grandma,' not a 'Savta.'"

The original version of "Dora the Explorer" - the source of huge excitement 
among America's Hispanic community, which says it has promoted ethnic pride 
among their youngsters - has become an international hit and spawned a 
billion-dollar merchandising brand. In the half-hour television show, Dora 
asks her audience to join her and her pet monkey Boots on an adventure, 
which always involves requests for viewers to help out - sometimes 
performing actions, but most often shouting out words, often in her mother 
tongue, Spanish.

When Hop! decided to purchase rights to the show two years ago, executives 
at the preschool channel had to battle for permission to switch from 
teaching Spanish to teaching English.

(To read the whole article, go to -
http://www.etni.org/news/monkey_travel.htm  )

 

-----------------------------------------------
Read "The Etni Rag" - http://www.etni.org/etnirag/

Add yourself / Update your entry to "Who's Who on Etni"
http://www.boker.org.il/etni/whoswho.htm
-----------------------------------------------

Other related posts: