Windows 8 Preview Released – Mini Chinese Lesson
The developer release of Microsoft’s Windows 8 has been out for a few days now, and without a doubt the most interesting, and controversial, feature is the new interface that mimics the interface from Windows Phone 7. Rather than get involved in the debate over whether or not this new interface is good or bad, let’s take a look at a Chinese language news snippet that introduces the new operating system.
Have a look at the keywords below and familiarise yourself with the words before having a go at reading the news article below.
Keywords
News Bite
Traditional
微軟昨天在開發者大會「BUILD」上，展出最新作業系統「Windows8」的預覽版，Windows8提供兩種操作介面，使用者可以選擇用傳統的Windows7介面，或是跟Windows Phone Mango一樣的動態磚介面。Windows8讓人印象最深的，就是開機速度快，一般電腦不用三十秒即可完成開機。Simplified
微软昨天在开发者大会“BUILD”上，展出最新作业系统“Windows8”的预览版，Windows8提供两种操作介面，使用者可以选择用传统的Windows7介面，或是跟Windows Phone Mango一样的动态砖介面。Windows8让人印象最深的，就是开机速度快，一般电脑不用三十秒即可完成开机。Pinyin
wéiruǎn zuótiān zài kāifāzhě dàhuì “BUILD” shàng, zhǎnchū zuìxīn zuòyèxìtǒng “Windows8″ de yùlǎnbǎn, Windows8 tígōng liǎng zhǒng cāozuò jièmiàn, shǐyòngzhě kěyǐ xuǎnzé yòng chuántǒng de Windows7 jièmiàn, huòshì gēn Windows Phone Mango yīyàng de dòngtài zhuān jièmiàn. Windows8 ràng rén yìnxiàng zuì shēn de, jiùshì kāijī sùdù kuài, yī bān diànnǎo búyòng sānshí miǎo jíkě wánchéng kāijī.English
Microsoft at the “build” developer conference yesterday showed of the preview version of the latest operating system “Windows 8″. Windows 8 provides two types of interface, users can choose between the Traditional Windows 7 interface and the Windows Phone Mango style ‘dynamic brick’ interface. The thing that left the biggest impression in Windows 8 was the start up speed, an average computer can start up in less than 30 seconds.
Useful sentence structure
Without a doubt the most useful, and reusable, construct is the ‘left/makes the biggest impression’ part. This can be used in many situations for describing movies, music, activities, literally anything.
Traditional
讓人印象最深的就是Simplified
让人印象最深的就是Pinyin
ràng rén yìn xiàng zuì shēn de jiù shìEnglish
left the biggest impression was
An example of this in use might be:
Traditional
台灣小吃讓人印象最深的就是臭豆腐Simplified
台湾小吃让人印象最深的就是臭豆腐Pinyin
táiwān xiǎochī ràng rén yìnxiàng zuìshēn de jiùshì chòudòufŭEnglish
The Taiwanese snack that leaves the biggest impression is stinky tofu
(Windows and stinky tofu in the same lesson, can’t be many lessons that can claim that!?)
Notes
賈可 made some interesting comments below about translating some of the words into Simplified Chinese. Since the passage used here came directly from an existing news article they haven’t been changed and only Simplified or Traditional versions of the characters have been provided. 賈可 is right that if the article were from a mainland Chinese publication then the word 操作系统 would most probably have been used instead of 作業系統. Though I’m confident that people working in the computer industry from both sides of the Strait would know all of these terms.
Below is an image from a CNN magazine aimed at English learners in Taiwan that shows some more usage of the words that 賈可 pointed out.
Note that 介面 is used and not 界面 which makes it seem almost certain that the former is the Taiwan usage and the latter the mainland Chinese usage. Also, while 操作 is used, here it means ‘operating interface’ as in the way in which you interface with (use) the computer – in this case being using the touch controls of an iPad over traditional input.
Traditional
iPad將終結傳統電腦操作介面Simplified
iPad将终结传统电脑操作介面Pinyin
iPad jiāng zhōngjié chuántǒng diànnǎo cāozuòjièmiànEnglish
iPad means the end of traditional operating interfaces
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Dave Flynn
Dave is a designer of websites, learner of Chinese and lover of technology. Originally from the UK , he's been living in Taiwan and learning Mandarin Chinese for the last four years. He founded and runs Chinese Hacks, a blog dedicated to effectively learning Chinese.
5 Comments
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Haha, liked the Stinky Tofu and Windows 8 combination. Some would say it’s not a far off comparison.
Awesome useful sentence structure though!
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Excellent sentence structure linking Stinky Tofu and Windows 8.
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“operating system” should be translated to “操作系统” in simplified Chinese, and “interface” should be “界面”.
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Hi 贾可, thanks for the info. This is an actual news snippet from a Taiwanese news website and so naturally 作業系統 is used. Also, afaik 介面 is an acceptable variant for interface. I will make a note next to Operating System for clarification though, thanks!
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I’ve just added some further notes on this, cheers for pointing it out.
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