Irrelevant tangent: I was in Albert Heijn (common Dutch supermarket) today, the one in Amsterdam at Dam Square. They recently sell "Danish Chef Cheese Spread" (

Irrelevant tangent: I was in Albert Heijn (common Dutch supermarket) today, the one in Amsterdam at Dam Square. They recently sell "Danish Chef Cheese Spread" (you might imagine Cheez Whiz in a tube), which I'm addicted to, to the detriment of my health. As I was stuffing tubes of this into my basket, a pretty young Chinese woman (tourist) stood right beside me and said something in Chinese. It took me a few seconds to realize she'd spoken Chinese and couldn't care less if I existed. It so happens that, at the risk of humble-bragging, I've taken some Chinese lessons. Ten more seconds later, I understood what she'd said: zhe shi shenme? "What is this?" She had no idea what this bin of cheese tubes was, and why would she? I then spent another half-minute trying to think of the word for "cheese" in Chinese. Of course, I was too late, and she re-joined several other attractive Chinese people. Google translate says Qǐ sī (chee suh), but is that possibly the actual translation? I may never know.