Many well-known electronic brands, such as Lenovo and parts for numerous other brands are still made in China. Shenzhen, a city in the south, boasts its own electronics district where thousands of sellers tout mobile phone screens, flash drives, and custom spec desktop computers. Also located in Shenzhen, is one of the biggest Foxconn factories in China (there are currently 12 altogether), that employs hundreds and thousands of workers to make parts for Apple products, such as the iPhone and iPad, Amazon’s Kindle, Nintendo and also Playstation. Most recently, Tianjin, a northern city in China became home to Tianhe-1A, currently the fastest computer in the world.
At the bottom of this article, you can check out an awesome infographic, originally from the International Business Times, that shows 10 things that Chinese manufactures more than anyone else in the world.
Since Chinese is such an old written language, new words for modern conveniences are often created from characters that already exist in Chinese. For example, the word for computer in Chinese is 电脑 (diàn nǎo), which literally translates to ‘electric brain’. Because of this, learning more ‘specific’ words in Chinese are probably more easily remembered than the basics, because they’re often just a combination of characters you have already learned.
Building your own computer, or being ‘tech savvy’, is now no longer restricted to the pros or young people with degrees and most people have their own computer at home or access to one in a public space. Below is a list of computer related words that covers computer hardware, software, keyboard keys and many other useful computing vocabulary that you might need to discuss, build or fix computers.
Computer words in Chinese
硬件 (yìng jiàn) Hardware
电脑 (diàn nǎo) Computer
显示器 (xiǎn shì qì) Monitor
鼠标 (shǔ biāo) Mouse
键盘 (jiàn pán) Keyboard
移动 (yí dòng) mobile
设备 (shè bèi) device
音频设备 (yīn pín shè bèi) sound card/audio card (computer)
输入设备 (shū rù shè bèi) input device (computer)
游戏设备 (yóu xì shè bèi) gaming device/controller (for computer or console)
内存 (nèi cún) RAM / computer memory
快捷键 (kuài jié jiàn) shortcut keys
快捷方式 (kuài jié fāng shì) shortcut keys
软件 (ruǎn jiàn) Software
软件包 (ruǎn jiàn bāo) software package
免费软件 (miǎn fèi ruǎn jiàn) freeware
应用软件 (yìng yòng ruǎn jiàn) application software
杀毒软件 (shā dú ruǎn jiàn) antivirus software
流氓软件 (liú máng ruǎn jiàn) malware (computing)
操作系统 (cāo zuò xì tǒng) operating system
漏洞 (lòu dòng) bug
内测 (nèi cè) α (Alpha)
公测 (gōng cè) β (beta)
文件 (wén jiàn) files
上传 (shàng chuán) Upload
下载 (xià zǎi) Download
备份 (bèi fèn) Backup
加载 (jiā zài) load
文件夹 (wén jiàn jiā) folder
保存 (bǎo cún) save
重命名 (chóng mìng míng) rename
音频文件 (yīn pín wén jiàn) audio file (computer)
桌面 (zhuō miàn) Desktop
壁纸 (bì zhǐ) wallpaper
设置 (shè zhì) settings
首页 (shǒu yè) Homepage
窗口 (chuāng kǒu) Window
防火墙 (fáng huǒ qiáng) Firewall
取消 (qǔ xiāo) cancel
复制 (fù zhì) copy
粘贴 (nián tiē) paste
剪切 (jiǎn qiē) cut
安装 (ān zhuāng) Setup / install
应用 (yìng yòng) application
查找 (chá zhǎo) find
替换 (tì huàn) replace
退出 (tuì chū) quit
运行 (yùn xíng) run
字体 (zì tǐ) font
表格 (biǎo gé) table
卸载 (xiè zài) uninstall
浏览器 (liú lǎn qì) Browser
分享 (fēn xiǎng) share
评论 (píng lùn) comment
插件 (chā jiàn) plug-in
历史记录 (lì shǐ jì lù) history
书签 (shū qiān) bookmarks
帮助 (bāng zhù) help
刷新 (shuā xīn) to refresh a page
购物车 (gòu wù chē) Shopping cart
搜索 (sōu suǒ) search
搜索结果 (sōu suǒ jiéguǒ) search result
黑客 (hēi kè) Hacker
链接 (lián jiē) link
返回 (fǎn huí) back
电子邮件 (diàn zǐ yóu jiàn) Email
登录 (dēng lù) log in
注册 (zhù cè) sign in
邮箱 (yóu xiāng) mailbox
发送 (fā sòng) send
附件 (fù jiàn) attachment
垃圾邮件 (lā jī yóu jiàn) spam
Things China Makes More of
Original article found on IBTimes.com
