Last week I was in Los Angeles where I met three new Little Pims! Three new Little Pim voice over actresses, that is. Anna, Petra and Wiiam were all delightful and skilled voice over talents who brought Little Pim to life in Russian, German and Arabic, respectively. DVDs 1, 2 and 3 will be released in these languages in December 2009.

We had a great time in the recording studio and I loved hearing Little Pim say "Ilal liqa'a Qareeban" in Arabic (goodbye, see you soon!), exclaim "nochmal!" in German (one more time) and whisper "shhh...on speed" in Russian (shhh, he is sleeping).

I was learning too, since I only speak ein bissen Deutch, about 30 words of Russian and about as much Arabic as would fit on a Hamsa locket. Some of my favorite words were:

Padushka - pillow in Russian Er snorrt - he snores in German Futur - breakfast in Arabic (also about the only word I could pronounce in Arabic).

I also had a few "lost in translation" moments when I discovered that there are no words in German for hugs or for pretending, and in Russian you would NEVER use the word for kids' feet. The word exists but they don't use it. They say small legs instead. Hmmm... That one had me stumped. There are also about four ways of saying "goodbye, see you soon" in Arabic. I am sure we chose the best one! If not, we can always get back in the studio and do it nochmal. I'll just be sure to eat a big futur and bring my padushka.