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The soft and fluffy residents of Sesame Street
will soon speak in Hindi to engage Indian children with local stories.
The long-running children's educational show featuring colourful
puppets is to have an Indian adaptation.
Aired in over 120 countries and with more than 20 local versions,
Sesame Street helps teach pre-schoolers numbers and words using cartoons
and puppets.
The show has different educational storylines and characters around the
world, to reflect issues affecting children in specific countries.
The New York-based Sesame Workshop, a non-profit educational group, has
sent its people to India to talk to teachers, broadcasters, government
agencies and non-governmental organisations about how to develop the
Indian adaptation of the show.
The United States Agency for International Development (USaid) has
given a grant of $500,000 to Sesame Workshop to design and develop the
Indian version.
"We will create local Indian Muppets. They will be characters that will
engage Indian children and whom they will be able to relate to.
"We will need to work with local experts to explore the look and
personalities of these characters," Beatrice Chow, a spokesperson at
Sesame Workshop said.
The producers of the show for India are looking at developing
characters which will highlight pressing local issues.
"Some of these issues are education of the girl child, ethnic
differences, health and hygiene. So the Muppets for the Indian version
could be multi-dimensional, encompassing many issues," says the show's
project director for India, Isheeta Ganguly.
International versions of Sesame Street are given their own Muppets to
reflect local issues.
In the Egyptian adaptation, girl Muppet Khokhawants to be an astronaut
or a doctor and serves as a female role model.
The South African version of the popular children's TV series has an
HIV-positive character called Kami to encourage acceptance of people
living with the virus.
"Its one of our strongest shows," says Rajen Soni, who markets the
network beaming Sesame Street in India.
"Lots of pre-schoolers
wake up early to catch the show at 7.30 am."
(Agencies)
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“芝麻街”中那些軟軟的、毛絨絨的居民很快就會操著印度語，給印度的孩子們講述當地的故事了。
這個經久不衰的兒童教育節目以多彩的玩偶表演為特色。它將會為印度兒童制作一個適合他們的版本。
“芝麻街”在120多個國家播出，有20多個地方版本。它借助卡通和玩偶幫助學齡前兒童學習數字和單詞。
這個教育節目在世界各地采用不同的故事情節和人物形象，體現了在特定的國家對孩子產生影響的（不同）事物。
總部位于紐約的“芝麻街”工作室是一個非贏利性教育組織，它已經派遣工作人員前往印度，和（當地的）教師、廣播公司、政府部門以及非政府組織共同商討如何開發這個節目的印度版本。
美國國際開發署已經向“芝麻街”工作室提供了50萬美元的贊助金，用以開發和設計該節目的印度版本。
“我們將設計出印度本土的提線木偶，它們將會吸引印度兒童，并成為他們所能夠理解的人物形象。”
“芝麻街”工作室的發言人比阿特麗斯·周說：“我們需要和當地的專家合作，探索這些人物的外表和性格。”
該節目印度版本的制片人有意創作能夠突出反映當地迫切需要解決的問題的人物角色。
“其中包括女孩子的受教育問題、種族差異問題以及健康衛生問題。所以印度版玩偶（體現的內容）可能是多角度的，包括很多議題。”印度版節目的項目主管伊斯塔·甘古麗說。
“芝麻街”的國際版本可以開發各自的木偶來反映當地的情況和問題。
在埃及的版本中，木偶少女蔻卡哈想當一名宇航員或醫生，成為女性的榜樣。
在這個著名兒童電視劇的南非版本中有一個HIV呈陽性的角色，他的名字叫卡米，他鼓勵大家接受愛滋病毒攜帶者。
“它是我們最有實力的節目之一。”瑞真·索尼說。他負責芝麻街在印度的播放網絡的市場開發。
“很多學齡前兒童早早起床，為了能趕上早晨7點半的節目。”
（中國日報網站譯）
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Updated: 2004-08-19 15:28
