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Techie terms in Chinese (Cantonese) - Need help to find more

whykay 👩🏻‍💻🐈🏳️‍🌈 (she/her) on June 22, 2020

As an Overseas/Irish Born Chinese (IBC) and been in the tech industry and area for majority of my life, I'm not that versed in Chinese, specificall...
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alxtsg profile image
Alex Tsang

From the point of view of a Hongkonger:

  • Facebooking - "上Facebook" (visit Facebook) or "睇Facebook" (reading the posts on Facebook).
  • Tweet - I think Hongkongers simply use the word "tweet" and I don't think it has commonly used Cantonese translation.
  • Virtual reality - If I have to mention this technology to others, I would use the term "VR". If I must use Cantonese, "虛擬實景".
  • Augmented reality - Similar to VR, I would simply use the term "AR". I don't have experience of explaining this technology to others in Cantonese.
  • QR code - No Cantonese translation in daily life, simply use the term "QR code" as-is.
  • scan (a code) - "Scan下個Code" (give the code a scan).
  • startup - "初創企業", or usually "初創".
  • indie developers (games) - I would use the term "indie" to describe the team. For example, I woud say "整呢隻Game嘅係Indie" (who made this game are indie (developers)).

For other words in your list, those are either too technical that no one I know would say them in Cantonese, or the Cantonese translation is not commonly used.

Also, while both "當機" and "死機" mean computer crash, Hongkongers tend to say that as "Hang機" (the machine is hanging there and doing nothing). To mention a screenshot, I woud say "Cap圖" ("Cap" for capture). For example, "Cap幅圖畀我睇下" (capture the screen for me to check).

By the way, I suggest cantoneseinput.com/ and jyutping.com/ if you would like to type in Cantonese. I use the former one daily as I don't know Cangjie or Quick. The former one doesn't use the Jyutping standard but the romanisation is more familiar to Hongkongers.

Hope this helps.

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whykay profile image
whykay 👩🏻‍💻🐈🏳️‍🌈 (she/her)

Thanks! And thank you for the useful references too!
I don't know how to type in Chinese (very basic kindergarden reading & writing😆), I look up the words, then themselves individually or as a phrase via cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/. To hear what it sounds like, I use SayJack (sayjack.com/cantonese/learn/). Google is not that great, they had someone internally doing Cantonese translations years ago, but was not officially released. I should write a post on my process, it takes me a few steps if I don't know the words themselves or what it sounds like. I can speak it and understand it no problem. But it's worth the trouble because I get to learn new words and reinforce my understanding of Traditional Chinese and Cantonese. 😊

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ytjchan profile image
ytjchan

Indie is 獨立製作, and developer is 開發者. I would rather call indie developers as 獨立製作人.

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hangindev profile image
Jason Leung 🧗‍♂️👨‍💻 • Edited

Hi whykay! I come from Hong Kong and Cantonese is my mother tongue. Glad you are picking up the language and I think I can help with some of them:

面書 (min6 syu1) - Facebook
虛擬實境 (heoi1 ji4 sat6 ging2) - Virtual reality
擴張實境 (kwong3 zoeng1 sat6 ging2) - Augmented reality
輕觸式熒幕 (hing1 zuk1 sik1 jing4 mok6) - Touchscreen
視覺化 (si6 gaau3 faa3) - visualisation
數據視覺化 (sou3 geoi3 si6 gaau3 faa3)- data visualization
遙距工作 (jiu4 keoi5 gung1 zok3) - remote working
創業 (cong1 cong3) - startup
掃描 (sou3 miu4) - scan

Some of them I really don't know because we would just mix English terms in our daily conversation. In fact, I also struggle when I am writing my blog in Chinese that if I should use English terms that many can read or use translated terms that people may find confusing.

You can visit this site to search for the character and listen to its pronunciation. DM me via twitter if you need further help! Good luck!

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whykay profile image
whykay 👩🏻‍💻🐈🏳️‍🌈 (she/her)

Amazing! Thank you so much! I speak Cantonese at when I visit family, but it's so hard to communicate what I do day-to-day and what excites me to my mom and other relatives who are not in tech industry. My Cantonese conversationally is grand, I haven't been laughed at in Hong Kong when I am out and about, but certainly terms for more topical conversations on tech is hard for me. So thank you for your help. I understand we all mingle English with our Cantonese conversations.

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daoleno profile image
daoleno

Tweet - 推特
Facebook - 脸书
Source control - 源代码管理
repo - 仓库
TDD - 测试驱动开发
BDD - 行为驱动开发
Virtual environment - 虚拟环境
sandbox (programming) - 沙盒
Virtual reality - 虚拟现实
Augmented reality - 增强现实
Touchscreen - 触摸屏
QR code - 二维码
scan (a code) - 扫描
retina display - 视网膜显示屏
text editor (coding) - 文本编辑器
data scientist - 数据科学家
data engineer - 数据工程师
visualisation/visualization (data) - 虚拟化
startup - 启动/创业公司
ecosystem - 生态系统
indie developers (games) - 独立开发者
remote working - 远程工作

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whykay profile image
whykay 👩🏻‍💻🐈🏳️‍🌈 (she/her)

Thank you so much. I'll have to get the pronunciations for them all as I am not great at reading and writing being born overseas and a self-learning the past few decades. I didn't go to Chinese school (didn't have any where I grew up). This is really helpful, so thank you! I will probably write another post... if there's enough, maybe a series. 🤔

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whykay profile image
whykay 👩🏻‍💻🐈🏳️‍🌈 (she/her)

Anyone help me? I don't know where to tag this article so I get more help finding Chinese (Cantonese) techie terminology. Already emailed the mods to see if they can advise. #TIA

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Hey there,

Sorry about this!

I think this was most likely a mistake. I'll add this tag back to your post now and look into things... probably just a moment where someone didn't read thoroughly enough into the article. 🙂

I'll also email ya back — apologies for the delayed response! 🙃

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whykay profile image
whykay 👩🏻‍💻🐈🏳️‍🌈 (she/her)

No worries at all, thank you. I just had to amend the title and I seem to have gotten help from folks. This community roxx! Keep up with the good work. Being a mod is no easy job. 🤜🤛

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Daniel Leong 🇸🇬

Awesome list you have here.

Definitely great to have this on hand in a case you need it.