Hmoob

[m_cobweb]

Last night darkmane and I stopped at a Wells Fargo ATM to deposit a check and get cash. As usual, the screen prompted me to choose a language. My options were Spanish, Japanese (in characters), and Hmoob.

So of course I chose Hmoob.

The embarrassing thing is that I honestly wondered if there was an error in the programming that replaced "English" with "Hmoob" (or possibly an inside joke in the bank). Once everything on the next screen came up in combinations of letters I'd never seen, I cancelled, and then found out that English was the default language and didn't need to be specifically chosen anyway.

So later in the evening I had to Google for Hmoob. The only thing I could think of that it resembled was possibly Cambodian (although I didn't know why the words were in the Western alphabet), and it turns out I wasn't far wrong--Hmoob is the language of the Hmong.


Peb kwvtij Hmoob nyob puv thoob lub qab ntuj khwb no, tab sis muaj tej lo lus thiab tej yam khoom peb yuav tau rov qab tig los tshawbfawb kom meej xws li ib lo lus uas peb pheej niaj hnub siv thaum peb muaj noj muaj haus ntawd.

Comments

[icebluenothing.livejournal.com]

Is .... that really .... common enough to be an ATM option? *boggles*

[m-cobweb.livejournal.com]

Wells Fargo on Madison. Yep.

[thevfrchick.livejournal.com]

I was not aware that the Hmong people were so numerous in Seattle that the bank felt that they would benefit from carrying out their ATM transactions in their native language. Fascinating.

[vulture23.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, now we know.

Like thevfrchick said, I wouldn't have thought that Seattle had enough Hmong population to make it a likely choice to have on an ATM, but... I guess I've never done any ethnic-background surveys in the Madison/First Hill area, so what do I know? :)

[luchog.livejournal.com]

There are some strange little enclaves of southeast Asian and north African ethnic groups scattered around the city (south First Hill is practically little Ethiopia).

[visioninblack.livejournal.com]

That is the funniest thing I have heard all day, thank you! Now, I want to go and research this. I have never heard of the language Hmoob. :)