Comments on: クリーム ≠ cream

By: Leonardo Boiko

Leonardo Boiko — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:32:59 +0000

Portuguese “creme” agrees with the Japanese version. I’m always kind of baffled at the English “cream”. It’s just fatty milk, dudes.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:15:32 +0000

Wow, you’re little blog is booming isn’t it.
Yes, I could go a soft-cream right about now.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/シュークリーム
the wiki has a small description explaining it.

In Australia, people who know a little about pastry know it just as \choux\ pronounced shoe. Which is plural… so probably incorrect.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:14:47 +0000

Andy: Ha, once again I prove how American I am. On a related note, this past weekend I was laughing at a packet of kleenex – on the lift there was “SOULEVER,” which made me think, “Ha, soul-lever. Who would write Engrish that dumb?!” Then I examined the packet more closely and realized it was French.

Matt: I like the ramen comparison. Wonder what kind of dairy products existed here before the black ships.

Facebook friend Tommy noted that ソフトクリーム is another great example of クリーム-based 外来語 that doesn’t translate directly.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:17:40 +0000

Yeah, and the “chou” means “cabbage.” For real!

I think that “生クリーム” is the easiest way to say “cream, but not whipped cream or weird cake cream.” Maybe the reason for the difference in semantic focus is that us Euro-derived folks have had cream since the days of churns and serfdom, but it got imported to Japan largely as a part of fancy pastries and stuff. “Ramen” in English is kind of similar — my impression is that by default it means the cheap dried stuff in packages, not real restaurant food in a bowl.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:42:15 +0000

“chou cream” is romanized that way because it’s actually French.