Sprechen Sie Potter? How Harry is spreading the English language
Muggle, quidditch and house elf are quickly becoming part of German schoolchildren's English vocabulary thanks to huge sales of the original language Harry Potter book.
Publisher Bloomsbury revealed yesterday that its English-language version of the boy wizard's final tale has sold as many copies overseas as in the UK. In Germany alone 1m copies were sold in the last month. Pre-orders in China were more than 200% higher than those of the previous book.
Muggle, quidditch and house elf are quickly becoming part of German schoolchildren's English vocabulary thanks to huge sales of the original language Harry Potter book.
Publisher Bloomsbury revealed yesterday that its English-language version of the boy wizard's final tale has sold as many copies overseas as in the UK. In Germany alone 1m copies were sold in the last month. Pre-orders in China were more than 200% higher than those of the previous book.
As well as being popular among children learning English, the untranslated Harry Potters have seen huge demand from impatient fans who want the books as soon as they come out.
"Half of Harry Potter sales were export sales," said Bloomsbury chairman Nigel Newton.
"Readers don't want to wait while it gets translated."
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has smashed records in the UK with sales now nearing 4m, according to industry monitoring service Nielsen BookScan.
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