I definitely won't buy the German edition of DH, even though I'm German myself. I really enjoyed DH in English, but the German translation of the previous six books was downright horrible. The text sounds as if the translator swallowed an English-German dictionary, his word choice is far-fetched (e.g. he uses foreign words that even adults don't know, probably trying to sound sophisticated), he doesn't seem to recognise most idioms and sayings and translates them literally, etc. It is true that most German teenagers and adults are fluent in English and could read DH in English if they wished. But the majority of the younger children don't have a choice but to buy the German translation.

They had to wait a hell of a long time!!! i would die if i had to wait that long. That's cool that they got it though!

To those who say that every French and German people already read it in English... You're totally wrong. I'm from Quebec (Canada), and even here when we learn English at a younger age than in France AND where everything is bilingual, a whole lot of people aren't fluent in English. It's HARD to learn a language, and even if we learn it at school, it's not enough to be able to read a huge book like this. A French friend also told me that sometimes the books stores only get the English book a few days after it's released, because anyways only a few people buy it. And by the way, the French book was released yesterday (the 26 at 12:01), not today.

wow... hundreds of fans?

"WHERE QUITE A FEW PEOPLE EXPECT EVERYONE ELSE TO KNOW THE LANGUAGE THEY SPEAK." Except in America, we aren't just a few hours away from countries that don't speak our language. So unless you're traveling far away theres no need..

that must suck they must have heard so many spoilers by now.

go to Harrypotterholiday.com if you want july 21 2008 to be international Harrry Potter day

I would like to correct people who are saying that people in America or England don't care to learn a language. I am in Spanish 3 at school, and hope to learn French too. I understand that some people don't want to learn a different language than English, but that doesn't mean everyone in the United States only speaks English!

Aw, it would suck so much if you couldn't understand English and had to wait that long! I'm in my third year of French class, and I'm thinking of buying the book! I mean, I know what's happening, I've practically memorized the book lol! How many times have y'all read it? I've read it 17x through, and then bits and pieces (like the last 4 chapters omg the best parts ever), like 2x a week. I know, I have no lifee lol. On a complete tangent, WTH is the next mugglecast? "we expect to have another episode out by Friday night, Saturday at the latest". *cough* *looks at watch* TICK TOCK

I went to a midnight release in Switzerland with my sister, mum and brother whom I already dragged to the English release in July. It really was quite amazing, the atmosphere, and there were loads of giveaways - I won a Harry Potter folder, notebook and my sister even gave me the Dumbledore's Army necklace she got *happy* And hehe, outside the store was a guy from some sect giving out leaflets about how HP is dangerous and stuff - he should've come celebrating with the rest of us instead of standing out there in the cold :) And, amazingly enough, my brother actually managed not to get spoiled for the book all this time! He simply avoided the internet and papers from some time, and of course I made a real effort not to tell him anything, but now we can finally talk it all trough!

I can't believe they had to wait that long! I feel so bad for them!

@ Jacinthe I can't speak for Canada, but in Germany DH (in English!) was sold 400.000 times on the day it came out. So much for "To those who say that every French and German people already read it in English... You're totally wrong."

awww thats so sad!! they are just getting it now?!!? poor french and german...

poor children out there :[[ i wanna cry for them...they are just now getting to read it WOW. daaang and JKR is still making BANK off of those books...but then again she probably will til she dies.

For those Germans and Frenches who can speak English, good for you! But for those of you that can't, MAN I feel bad for you guys! I hope you all haven't been spoiled too horribly.. anyway congrats France and Germany! You guys are gonna love it! Especially the part when- whoops! Caught myself there... :D

cool for them!

yay for them!! it's good to know that they didnt just give up waiting or look up the ending online or anything. it must be hard waiting for so long!! btw, the rigged poll makes me l-o-l. :D

welll, pity those Dutch Hp fans who cannot read English, they still have to wait till november 17.... man by that time I am ready for book 8.

In Canada, we got it on the 26... Don't know if it was a mistake on the site or if we were supossed to get it before France. By the way, I read it in english... because I spaek and read english : but it's not every Québecois and French who understand english enough to read such a book. Yeah, english is thaugh as a second english : more to be able to understand simple text... just to get more culture. We do not learn english to be perfect bilingual... I'm am soooo happy that I had the chance to read the 7th book in english 'cuz I understand english. The french one is as good as the english version... speaches is told in such a different way that I had to red it in both language. Oh and yeah.... That's my favorite book of the serie :P

I just feel sorry for those French and German people who aren't fluent enough in English to have read it in English first, cause they probably got a load of spoilers.

How lucky though.. I mean they got to experience the whole thing AGAIN!

yes i posted 73d !

It seems so strange that it is only now coming out in differrent parts of the world. I would have thought that, by now, some bi-lingual person would have gone and spoiled the book for them. I know probably just murdered that word, but oh well. I hope they enjoy it!

those poor souls...they just got the book? aww

I think i would have gone crazy if i didn't have the boook.....it had to be a big spoiler.....oh well....i also feel happy for them......they get to read it in there own language.......*goes back to watching POA*

i think its great that they finaly get the book!!! but then again i think its sad that they had to wait this long...but at least they got it now, i bet by now they no everything about it, i mean thats like trying to live in america and just now get the book and not no anything about it....

atleast they have the fun a bit longer.. i mean look at how many ppl have ditched mn cuz we have no more books to look foreward to... :(

I agree April_Lee....I feel sorry for them and also envy them at the same time!

WHERE'S MY MUGGLECAST?!

I only ever started to read the books in English after book six, but now I think I'll buy DH in German just to make my bookshelf look complete. ;) If I could choose, I'd always take the original version. There might be single words I don't understand but little things tend to get lost in the translation.

I live in Québec, Canada so I knew that it was going to be released soon. I ,of course, stood in line for the English version. I sort of wanted to rain on the Québecoise's praide by going to one of the book parties in Slyhterin robes with a big list of all the people that died in 7 on my back... but my my wouldn't let me do it. She said I would probobly be thrown out the the book shop. lol I'm bad.....

DH was also released in Croatia yesterday ( the croatian version of course :D )- at precisely ( and I do mean precisely ) 10:26 p.m. ( because it was the 26th, you see ;) ) But I personally can't wait to get my hands on the German version as well, considering the fact I've read Potter in English, German and Croatian :D

But then again I would hate it if someone did that to me. I'm glad I didn,t go.. (I meant mom not my)

hey guys... do any of you know where MUGGLECAST is? aren't thye supposed to come out tonight???? i'm getting impatient >:O

they were suppose to come out yesterday................ ..it looks like to be postponed to tomorrow now................

Vote for OOTP here!! http://movies.yahoo.com/f eature/movieawards/index. html

OMG IT MUST HAVE BEEN SOOO SPOILED!!! SUCKS FOR THEM!! HAHA!

OMG twilighttrishh, I feel your pain. *points to username* First, they lose their voices, (c'mon, MCers are supposed to have perfect immune systems, GOSH!), and then they're 2 days later than they said they would be! Also, no Eric or, more importantly, JAMIE! How am I supposed to last till December without Jamie? :( I think I might explode! Stupid Durham internet!! Jamie needs to switch universaties, so he can get non-crappy internet service. Plus, I was too late to get PiPa, so I don't even have his Blickles! Someone needs to put the Blickles on Youtube, seriously. I wonder if there's a PiPa account blackmarket.... hmmm.... JKJK don't kill MCers! Wow, now that I went off on a completely unrelated MuggleCast tangent... back on topic! If I were in France, I would buy both books, and then compare to see which names are better etc. LOL cause I have a life! I really wanna have a HP library, where I have every edition of HP, in every language, EVER! That would so pwn, man. I bet Jo has one... WOW I'm bored today! ttyl guys

it's still not out............urgh...... .........

ok that's it... i'm leaving at 12:00 am. i've been waiting for hours now! just for MuggleCast. i can't believe it's taking this slow to get out.

Wow!

For those who think that people that has to wait until it is translate aren't lucky... you're right... But not because they could be spoild! Actually, lots of people [who read it in english] are civilised enough to retain their eigerness to talk about it. They would'nt want to be spoiled... so they don't! I know that I read 15 chapter of a fanfiction on the net a week before it came out in english... and darn it! it was actualy the real thing that leaked! I realy taught that it was a fanfic... I know what it is to be spoiled... So I don't spoil other :) By the way, Jean-François Ménard did a realy great job translating this book! It realy is truth to the original version, paragraph per paragraph... [since sentence to sentence is almost impossible from english to french :P]

Why does the pole say 100%?

yeah, where IS mugglecast? way to be late.

Yes! I'm excited for them, especially since I bought the British version of the book while studying in Austria this summer. I saw so many people reading that book on the bus; it made me so happy. So yay for the German translation, and what the heck, the French one too.

France, Germany AND Belgium!!!

I find it very ignorant of those in the coments who maintain that it doesn't matter for them because they already have to learn english. this just proves that some of us expect them to learn our language but we should not learn theirs. even of those who do speak english, it is unfair for them not to have the luxury of reading it in their native language at the same time as we can. (though i know for a fact they cannot translate until the original is out for secrecy reasons). I know that some get so tired of this space of time when the book it spoiled continuously for them that they learn english properly for their own enjoyment.

A few people ^^ seem to be refering to my comments on the first page. If you read them properly, you'll see i said 'i'm not saying they won't want to read them in their own language.' You are saying you disagree with me, but you are basicly repeating my own arguments, that quite a few read it in english, but it would be nice also to read it in their own language. So you are clearly confused.

i'm French and i couldn't wait that long to read HP7 so i read it in english this summer! my little sister bought it in French so i have both ^^

omg...in italy we have to wait until 5 january...