# what do other countries say when taking pictures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-other-countries-say-when-taking-pictures/488862 "2009-03-09T19:17:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-other-countries-say-when-taking-pictures/488862/21 "2009-03-11T00:13:58Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Is “cheese” a corruption of “cheers”? Nope, it’s just “cheese” to make the smile as described upthread. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-other-countries-say-when-taking-pictures/488862/22 "2009-03-11T00:50:04Z")
In Icelandic we just tell people to smile, or “ostur” (cheese) which makes everyone smile since it’s such a lame joke 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-other-countries-say-when-taking-pictures/488862/23 "2009-03-11T03:24:04Z")
You’ll hear “Fromage!” occasionally in Québec, because it’s such a terrible joke, as **WormTheRed** says. “Cheese” or simply “souriez!” are also pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-other-countries-say-when-taking-pictures/488862/24 "2009-03-11T04:05:11Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > “Cheese” or simply “souriez!” are also pretty common. Also “smile” as a noun, rather than an imperative: _sourire_, with a stress on the ‘i’: _souriiiiiiiiiiiire_. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-other-countries-say-when-taking-pictures/488862/25 "2009-03-11T04:40:44Z")
> [@seodoa](#): > > In Japanese there are a bunch of them. “_Chiizu!_” ‘Cheese!’ has become pretty popular but it has the problem of ending in a /u/ sound which creates strangely puckered lips amongst the smiles. “_san, ni, ichi_” is also popular, just a ‘3, 2, 1’ countdown. It has the advantage of consisting of vowel sounds that all, more or less, create smiles. “_Wiisu_” a slangish salutation used by a lot of younger folk, is sometimes used as well. > > My personal favorite, even though it makes me sound older than I am when I say it, is to have the cameraman say “_Ichi tasu ichi wa?_” ‘One plus one is?’ to which everyone answers “_NI!_” ‘Two!’ > > ETA: It is also common for the cameraman to simply say “_Hai, chiizu!_” for ‘OK, cheese!’ And those getting their picture taken reply only by smiling and posing, without any verbal response. There’s also “Piiiisu!” (For everyone that doesn’t know any Japanese, the “u” is “su” isn’t usually pronounced [aside: well, it kind of is, really loosely, it’s hard to explain so I’m not going to try], especially when it’s a terminal character so you end up with about the same face as cheese gives out). And if you’re sufficiently pouty and sarcastic, for “ichi tasu ichi wa” you can answer with “san deshou, bokeyaro” (or something to that effect, I think that’s it but it was kind of an aside and I didn’t commit the exact phrase to memory) which can be roughly translated as “three, idiot” or probably more accurately in magnitude, “three, dumbass.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-other-countries-say-when-taking-pictures/488862.md?page=1)