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Donald McDonald
Ronald McDonald is a cultural icon everywhere in the world thanks to the powerful marketing machine that is McDonald's. Everywhere that is except for Japan, where his cousin Donald McDonald fills his oversized shoes. I'm not sure why McDonald's decided to replace Ronny-boy with his repeditively named alter-ego. Perhaps they were worried that Japanese people would call him "Lonald", but this seems odd since people here are more likely to mistake "L's" for "R's" than the other way around. My theory anyway is that the Japanese pronounciation of "Ronaldo" is a little more ethnic sounding than McDonald's HQ was comfortable with. It also kind of conjures up the image of a thinly mustached Ronald luring birdie and the fry girls into his den of sin to show them his "quarter-pounder". Anyway, some of the Mc Donald's restaurants in Aomori feature a free bilingual comic that tells the exciting tales of Donald and the gang. Yesterday I used it as part of an activity with my ichi-nensei students and discovered the following mistake...
Did you spot it? The accidental use of "Ronald" instead of "Donald" gives me the feeling that this comic was written by a gaijin. The comic is also read from left to right (which really confused my students) and has a very lame storyline. I'm sure if a Japanese person wrote the comic it would be full of decapitations, tentacle rape and much more amusing English. Sadly it has none of those things, but in case you are still interested in taking a look here are some scans from issue #2:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Part 4, Part 5, Back cover
17 comments
I salute the Emperor Nefarious. Hail Nefarious; suck those Happy Meals off the planet! 
You'd think all those anti-McDonald's loonies would really get behind Emperor Nefarious and make him their mascot. He even kind of looks like a healthy piece of brocolli. 
If you're going to make sarcastic comments about 'funny English', it might be an idea to get your own right!"discovered to follwing mistake"
I was just testing you. Congrats! You win a free cheeseburger! They actually talked about Donald McDonald on that Trivia Fountain show last year. They said he's called Donarudo because there's already one famous Ronarudo (you know, the Brazilian soccer star...) so Japanese McDonald's decided they couldn't have a Ronarudo Makudonarudo because people might (god forbid) get confused. Don't know how many HEEEEEEEEEEEEs that got from the lame panelists, though.Also sort of related... In my Japan Times textbook, the article on Ronald McDonald in Japan calls him Ranald McDonald and doesn't refer to either of his, uh, correct names. Yes, it's written/edited by Japanese-sounding names.
Ranald McDonald was the name of a real person, the son of a Scotsman who worked for a the Hudson's Bay Company in Astoria (now Oregon, USA) around 1820, and an Indian woman. When Ranald was a boy, some Japanese fishermen were wrecked in a storm and drifted on the Japan Current around the Pacific coast and washed up near Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River. Ranald learned some Jpaanese words from them and came to believe that his mother's people were related to the Japanese. As a young man, he got employment on a whaling ship and persuaded the captain to be let off in a rowboat near Japan. The Japanese laws of that time prohibited contact with foreigners, on pain of death to the foreign visitors, but Ranald was taken into custody and then asked to teach english to several young Japanese men. Ranald was then put on a Dutch trading ship at Nagasaki and sailed around the world before returning to the USA. He is buried near Spokane, Washington, where his grave is a state historical park. When Commodore Perry arrived in Japan, the Japanese representatives who spoke English to him were the men taught by Ranald, greatly facilitating clear and efficient communication during that crisis. My understanding is that the McDonald's clown is not named Ronald because of potential confusion with the real Ranald McDonald who had a positive impact on Japanese-American relations. 
If you do not believe me as stephine (Salaveo) Iannopollo! But ronald
was mike the nigger! So much for playland, now they call it CUM LAND! 
Thanks 4 the info, it really helped me with my homework!!!!!
-Lucy
PS: McDonald's is nasty!!!!! 
Ronald taught me how to give head! 
I would like to congratulate you by this wonderful article! The world needs people like you, with front-end ideas. I work with hospedagem gratis, hospedagem php, hospedagem jsp, hospedagem java and hospedagem de sites in Brazil. Peace in your heart. Nixon. 
Malia referred to Ranald Mcdonald in a Japan Times textbook. Which text? I would love to see this article or lesson or whatever. Any idea how I can track it down? I am interested in the "real" Ranald McDonald and what the Japanese think about him.
Thanks 
For david: The Japan Times Text book is called Intermediate Japanese and you want the lesson 8 yomimono (page 165 in my edition of the book). 
That was really cute! I read it to my husband, and we both cracked up. 
Just so you all know it used to be donald mcdonald in America too when ray Kroc first debued his concept of a clown as a childrens maskot because he knew children would bring their familysHe got the idea from bozo the clown
He started off as a clown with a cup for a nose, a meal as a hat, and a tray of a burger, fries, and a shake around his waiste
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