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McDonald's Hmong billboard misses mark
upi ^ | Sept. 3, 2012

Posted on 09/03/2012 8:23:00 AM PDT by JoeProBono

ST. PAUL, Minn.- U.S. fast-food giant McDonald's apparent first attempt to use billboards to advertise its breakfasts to Hmong-Americans has left it with egg on its face.

Two billboards written in the Hmong language went up this past week in St. Paul, Minn., home to a large portion of the United States' Hmong immigrant population.

They read: "Yuavtxhawbpabraukojsawv yuavntxivzograukoj mus."

It's meant to be Hmong for "Coffee gets you up, breakfast gets you going." But the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Saturday some Hmong say the phrasing is awkward and words are run together.

"It sounds weird in Hmong because we don't really talk like that," Bruce Thao, 28, of St. Paul said. "Either way, there should definitely be spaces in between those words."

Dr. Thai Lee, a former chief resident at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, said while he thinks "it's great" mainstream businesses are becoming aware of the Hmong community, he's not keen on a fast-food company pushing menus not considered the healthiest.

As for the billboard's wording? It's a run-on sentence, he said.

"The text is also wrong, missing key breaks in the language," Thai Lee said. "As it stands right now, it doesn't make sense at all."


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; Food; Society
KEYWORDS: hmong
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To: cripplecreek

progress continues and marches on tonight, tonight i turn out my light and dream of vitamins and haircuts and genetic delight last week I was working in my kitchen when oddly I discovered cold fusion, so I wrote down the process on the back of my hand. next time when the recipe repeated I still thought that something else was needed cause texture and flavor were still quite bland. I dreamt I was swimming in the ocean and came face to face with a blue whale. It frightened me the size that it would grow. I found my purpose, I must prevent this, before he hurts us. bite the wax tadpole.


21 posted on 09/03/2012 9:11:35 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: blueunicorn6

Just what we need, another hyphenated special interest group.

If “Hmong-Americans” didn’t exist, Democrats and their crony capitalist friends would have to invent them -— just so they could pander to them.

Idiots.


22 posted on 09/03/2012 9:13:03 AM PDT by Walrus (Restoring America starts today! Let's roll!)
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To: bigheadfred

23 posted on 09/03/2012 9:16:44 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: JoeProBono

McDonald’s trying to appeal to the Hmong, you say? When did McD’s start offering dog and cat burgers, anyway?


24 posted on 09/03/2012 9:20:32 AM PDT by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
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To: JoeProBono
The Hmong held the Dalai Lama hostage when he was a child??? Oh the huge manatee!!!

MickeyD's just stepped in it bigtime.

25 posted on 09/03/2012 9:32:19 AM PDT by bigheadfred
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To: JoeProBono

Should have stuck with well known translations like:

Bite the Wax Tadpole (Coca-Cola, in Chinese)

Eat Your Fingers Off (KFC, in Chinese)

Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave (apocryphal, Pepsi-Cola, in Chinese)(or maybe “zombie apocryphal”, I suppose)

So, I suppose that, “Coffeegetsyouupbreakfastgets yougoing”, isn’t too bad, just indicative of *really* strong coffee.


26 posted on 09/03/2012 9:34:50 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: bigheadfred

And isn’t that little Barry Soetoro just to the left of the Ocean of Wisdom?!?


27 posted on 09/03/2012 9:37:54 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: JoeProBono

Americans could learn a lot from the Hmong. Freedom really means something to these heroic people.


28 posted on 09/03/2012 9:38:37 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: humblegunner

29 posted on 09/03/2012 9:40:42 AM PDT by Focault's Pendulum
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To: JoeProBono

30 posted on 09/03/2012 9:42:20 AM PDT by Focault's Pendulum
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To: Fightin Whitey

I don’t think so. The Hmong wouldn’t put up with BS for one second.


31 posted on 09/03/2012 9:49:39 AM PDT by bigheadfred
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To: Castlebar
Hey, thanks. You are very kind. We have a daily (Monday-Friday) thread here on FreeRepublic called Word for the Day where, in addition to improving our vocabulary, we make up puns, limericks, double entendres, etc. A good time is had by all. I am the Wednesday class "teacher," but the class is in good hands any day you might stop by.
32 posted on 09/03/2012 10:02:50 AM PDT by TruthShallSetYouFree (College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms.)
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To: JoeProBono
The US trained Hmong soldiers for the so called secret war in Laos, and these brave anti-communist mountain people fought the North Viet Army, VC and the Pathet Lao, helping block th Ho Chi Minh trail inside Laos (which was supplying the VC in Vietnam, N and S) and rescuing downed American pilots.

The Hmong people earned a special place in the hearts of American combat soldiers because of their strong support for the United States. The VC and NVA were quite scared of them (not unlike reactions to Gurkhas). Their role was a secret in the early stages and they made a huge sacrifice to help the US. 18,000 of their soldiers were killed in battle before 1969, and more than 100,000 Hmong were killed by the time the U.S. made the decision to pull out of Vietnam.

Assimilation in the US has been difficult for them, being mountain people (independent minded, like our mountain folk) thanks to morons here who do not know the debt we owe them. And now this idiotic advertising. Did McD's even consider getting someone who spoke Hmong to compose the ad or did they go to some school or the internet?

33 posted on 09/03/2012 10:02:53 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: JoeProBono

My hovercraft is full of eels.


34 posted on 09/03/2012 10:24:04 AM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: JoeProBono

Probably the same guy who came up with twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun (can’t believe I’m the first!)


35 posted on 09/03/2012 10:31:00 AM PDT by Moltke ("I am Dr. Sonderborg," he said, "and I don't want any nonsense.")
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To: John S Mosby
Assimilation in the US has been difficult for them, being mountain people (independent minded, like our mountain folk) thanks to morons here who do not know the debt we owe them.

Do we owe them a debt, or did we simply have a common enemy?

36 posted on 09/03/2012 10:31:00 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: IronJack

37 posted on 09/03/2012 10:32:29 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: Moltke

HoldthePicklesHoldtheLettuceSpecialOrdersDon’tUpsetUs


38 posted on 09/03/2012 10:45:37 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: Moonman62

Communism- yes. This is not unlike the fierce loyalty of the Filipino guerillas against the Japanese. They and their descendants are our allies against islamofascists and communists, both. The loss generationally is because the children of the Hmong are subject to the same sick democrap media and lies that has created our current society of “gimmees”


39 posted on 09/03/2012 11:30:22 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: JoeProBono
I see what they did there...

Cheers!

40 posted on 09/03/2012 12:43:50 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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