About The Flintstones…
I’m not quite sure about the rationale behind having different names. That aforementioned Wp page does address at least one name: the name «Miroc» (for “Mr. Slate”) came from Miron, which was the name of a stone quarry, right here in the Villeray neighbourhood.
«Caillou» instead of «Pierrafeu» is a significant shift. I’d say «Caillou» feels friendlier. It’s not too surprising that «Laroche» was used in the French version as well (for the Rubble family). It’s a pretty common last name in Quebec and it’s not that uncommon in France. Most of the Quebec first names used sound rather legitimate as local ones.
My guess is that the distinction in voiceover was part of the same idea. Several of the Quebec voice actors were wellknown, at the time. Having grown up in that era, their “avatars” are part of my deep memory.
And the Quebec version really sounded “local”. I’d argue the show’s more deeply embedded in Qc than in France, partly because of cultural similarities between Canada and the U.S. (e.g. drive-thrus were probably more common, here).
That same effect has been very prominent in the Quebec version of Slap Shot. The language used is extremely crude… and representative of speech patterns in 1970s Quebec. In anthro, we used to point to that movie adaptation to people who wanted to know more about Quebec culture.
I’m noticing that Réal Picard was among the people who adapted the Quebec version of The Flintstones. He was involved in 38 adaptation projects. However, Picard took over from somebody else in adapting the original series so he probably didn’t decide on the names. As he’s been adapting many cartoons since then,
While this may all sound rather trivial, the topic of adapting OERs really isn’t. It’s a significant part of the effort done by eCampus Ontario, at least when David Porter came over from BC Campus. It’s linked to the difference between internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n). The way l10n is practiced, it’s unlikely that character names would shift in most web content. In terms of learning, though, there’s a whole lot to be said about making every bit of content as locally relevant as possible. Those who translate resources meant to learn computer programming might have a lot to say about such issues as variable names.
There’s even something to be said about the links between l10n and a11y. In some ways, making OERs as accessible as possible is similar to making them culturally neutral, when that’s possible. However, it might be more important to make content appropriate in each cultural context instead of assuming neutrality.
And it goes further…
Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) has developed the GBA+ model: Gender-Based Analysis Plus. Like a11y, GBA+ is most effective when you apply it from the start. Same with Indigenous Pedagogies. And every effort towards Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. As a Kwantlen team noted, there’s significant value in paying attention to team members’ diverse skills when working with OER. Then it’s not about tokenization or paying lipservice to minority status.
It’s about building resources which lead to broad learning experiences.
