Even though it made my toes curl rather than made me laugh out loud, there was something about 'The Office' which caused instant recognition. It was translated to the US and I don't really know how successful it was there. I was interested to discover that it is currently running in France as a French series. The scripts are more or less straight translations but with some interesting cultural adaptations.
What I found most interesting was the changes that had to be made in order to adapt to the new French setting. Thus the ethnic minorities are North African rather than Caribbean. But also French office culture had to be reflected. So no nipping off to the pub after work but rather, the boss offers selected colleagues champagne in his office after hours.
There are video snippets at the TV station website. More details at the Guardian newspaper website.
Keywords: 'The Office', cultural differences, France, Le Bureau
