gougou Posted November 2, 2005 at 02:44 AM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 02:44 AM At work, we are representing a German supplier of dairy products. Today, I came across one of their butter packets, which was labelled in different languages. The Chinese was 乳酪, which AFAIK means cheese. My Chinese colleague is guessing that this might be the Taiwanese way of saying it, yet nobody knows for sure. Does anybody here know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klortho Posted November 2, 2005 at 03:16 AM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 03:16 AM I checked a few dictionaries. One gives its definition as "curds, cheese", the other as simply "cheese". But, I always thought cheese was 奶酪. I don't know if there's any subtle differences between these two terms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ah-Bin Posted November 2, 2005 at 05:00 AM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 05:00 AM In my experience Taiwanese say and write 起士 for cheese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(JR) Posted November 2, 2005 at 05:40 AM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 05:40 AM in taiwan they say "qi si" or "qi shi" for cheese, like ah bin said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gougou Posted November 2, 2005 at 05:56 AM Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 05:56 AM That's interesting, thanks for the replies so far. So is 乳酪 butter then? Or is there another word different from 黄油? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaocai Posted November 2, 2005 at 06:12 AM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 06:12 AM Butter should be 黄油 and cheese is 奶酪. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mugi Posted November 2, 2005 at 08:02 AM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 08:02 AM Try searching Taiwan Yahoo with various combinations of 乳酪, 奶酪, 起士, 芝士, butter, cheese, etc. It seems to be that 起士 is the colloquial term for cheese in Taiwan, while 乳酪 is a commonly used written word for cheese. But technically speaking, the dairy industry seems to use 乾乳酪 for cheese and 乳酪 for butter. This is what I gleened after a 5 minute search, so may not be all that accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semantic nuance Posted November 8, 2005 at 04:39 AM Report Share Posted November 8, 2005 at 04:39 AM Butter is 奶油, but of course it really depends on the content of your butter packet. If is it cheese, then we say 起士 here in taiwan, some will say 乳酪 too. Hope it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gougou Posted November 8, 2005 at 07:06 AM Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2005 at 07:06 AM Thanks for your answers. It seems there is no generally accepted way of referring to butter, so if you want to know what company we are representing, just keep your eyes open for the butter packages that every Taiwanese pokes fun at! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bathrobe Posted November 13, 2005 at 01:36 PM Report Share Posted November 13, 2005 at 01:36 PM It may be of interest to know that in translating the book title 'Charm Your Own Cheese' in Harry Potter, the Taiwanese translator uses 乳酪 and the Mainland translator uses 奶酪. See this page (from my own site): http://www.cjvlang.com/Hpotter/bktitle/cheese.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiYuanXi Posted November 14, 2005 at 03:54 AM Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 at 03:54 AM 乳酪,奶酪, 芝士 all means cheese. 奶油,牛油 means butter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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