Portuguese is NOT for Dummies
April 4th 2007 10:44
An email to John Wiley, the publishers of the 'For Dummies' series of books.
Subject: Portuguese is NOT for Dummies
i saw your book Portuguese for Dummies and i was very offended that you are saying that Portuguese is for dummies. it's not for dummies, many Portuguese people are quite smart and i think your book is racist and maybe you shouldn't say Portuguese is for dummies, huh? what if i brought out a book and called it John Wiley is Stupid, how would you like that? you wouldn't like it at all and i think you would be quite upset so maybe you should think twice before making a book called Portuguese for Dummies.
And their reply
Fw: Portoguese is NOT for Dummies
Hi Luke, I'm sorry to hear that you were offended by this title but please believe me when I say that offending customers is the last thing a major publisher such as ourselves wishes to do. The "For Dummies" brand is exactly that, a brand name. It has been around for many many years now and there a literally hundreds of books written in this series, eg Italian for Dummies, French for Dummies, Fishing for Dummies, Gardening for Dummies, Football for Dummies, Diabetes for Dummies, Pregnancy for Dummies, Windows XP for dummies, etc etc. If you were to look at the dummies website www.dummies.com you will see that this very popular series has books published in all subject areas and to date, I am not aware of anyone else finding the series name offensive. The title "Portugese for Dummies" is not refering that Portugese people are not smart, in fact, it is written for non Portugese people wanting to learn Portugese from a beginners level.
I hope you find this extra information helpful.
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