[HN Gopher] Chinese Tech Terms Explained in English
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Chinese Tech Terms Explained in English
Author : paradite
Score : 128 points
Date : 2023-07-02 18:06 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (16x.engineer)
(TXT) w3m dump (16x.engineer)
| atleastoptimal wrote:
| I wonder if a shorter, catchier word means an idea is more
| commonplace, or a shorter catchier word can end up causing an
| idea to be applied more.
| gyrccc wrote:
| Fun read. I found "maidian" more intuitively understood as
| "embedding dots" instead of "embedding seeds", since tracking
| dots (or tracking pixels) are often used for analytics and
| "dian"'s literal meaning is "dot".
| omeze wrote:
| This is interesting, always fun to see the same work in a
| different light and perspective. Btw Id say chendian is
| "retrospective", which most tech companies do after projects but
| some do them regularly. I also worked at a trading firm that did
| retros for big trades
| pySSK wrote:
| To me, it feels like "intuition" although it has different
| origins covers all of the resulting meanings.
| Dudester230602 wrote:
| I guess copying doesn't stop at technology level.
| zen928 wrote:
| Considering all of these terms are less descriptive and
| generalized abbreviations of more useful ways to describe basic
| concepts (with a hint of intended cultural exclusion by mixing
| regional nomenclature filled with loaded cultural context for
| common use phrases like dashboards), I'll be sure to correct any
| chinese coworkers I have using these purposefully misleading
| phrases instead of the correct ones. Thanks!
| vore wrote:
| You know, when terms get transferred from other languages, they
| don't always retain the meaning from the original language and
| may undergo a semantic change in the destination language. For
| instance, nobody is going to characterize the modern usage of
| "demagogue" (originally just meaning "a popular leader" from
| Greek) as "purposefully misleading", and you shouldn't be doing
| that for these Chinese terms either. Also I don't know where
| you're getting this "intended cultural exclusion" thing from
| when that's what you yourself are doing in your comment by
| insisting your outsider interpretation of these terms in a
| different cultural context is correct. Thanks!
| pyrale wrote:
| > I'll be sure to correct any chinese coworkers I have using
| these purposefully misleading phrases instead of the correct
| ones. Thanks!
|
| People communicating with other people using native language?
| We can't have that! Please revert to proper international
| languages like latin or esperanto immediately!
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| Or for those who wish to cross the lack of baggage of latin
| with the popularity of esperanto, there's Peano's (yes, that
| Peano) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latino_sine_flexione ...
| bluepod4 wrote:
| So passive aggressive lol. It's ironic that your username says
| "zen".
|
| I've never even heard a native Chinese coworker use these terms
| before. It seems you haven't either.
| pySSK wrote:
| The only interesting and unique concept in this list is
| "lunzi". Everything else is Sapir-Whorfian bullshit.
| brown wrote:
| The domain name made me curious: http://10x.engineer/
|
| "404 Not Found: 10x Engineers aren't real"
|
| Well played.
| H8crilA wrote:
| What's unique here is that those terms are not transliterations
| of English terms. Which is what happens in most European
| languages.
|
| I'm guessing that apart from increased phonetic distance what
| also matters is the size of the language, i.e. the number of
| speakers. With more speakers it's more likely that someone will
| create a neat native term for a new concept that spreads
| successfully, instead of adopting a foreign one.
| jareklupinski wrote:
| > As individual characters, "mai" means burying, and "dian"
| means points. The phrase "maidian" literally means "embedding
| points" or "burying seeds".
|
| > It can be translated into tracking, tagging or user data
| analytics depending on the context.
|
| or "breadcrumbs", to highlight the similarity of stuffing
| someone's pockets with something that trickles out so they can
| be found later
| dragontamer wrote:
| Breadcrumbs is arguably an English word that only makes sense
| after you read the Children's Story: Hansel and Gretel. Where
| Hansel and Gretel use breadcrumbs to find their way back home
| (except not really, cause the birds eat the crumbs and so
| they get lost).
|
| -------------
|
| I've been told of various Chinese phrases that have similar
| story-driven meanings. Ex: "Pour more oil" is something to do
| with Sima Yi filling the torch of Zhuge Liang in the tomb.
| Sima Yi, a lifelong enemy of Zhuge Liang, is somewhat
| expected to defile the tomb, but instead honors his fallen
| enemy by pouring more oil and keeping the light going.
|
| I forgot what "pour more oil" means in Chinese, but its
| something to do with respect, even respect towards a sworn
| enemy.
|
| ------------
|
| English has "Breadcrumbs", "Sour Grapes", "Break a leg"...
|
| Actually, English also has "Adding fuel to the fire", which
| is almost the opposite of the Chinese meaning.
| vore wrote:
| Unless you are referring to another term, "add oil"
| (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Jia You ) is just a term of
| encouragement, derived from the verb to refuel a car. I
| don't think it really has a connotation of respect.
| caonidaye wrote:
| These terms are often referred to as Hei Hua . Just fancier
| jargons.
| resolutebat wrote:
| Personally, I would reserve Black Speech (the literal meaning
| of Hei Hua ) for VPs and the PR department.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Speech
| computerlab wrote:
| "lunzi" and "huidu" are both nice concise terms, would be nice to
| have an terse english equivalent. I am curious if knowing this
| sort of term is actually helpful for the average engineer working
| at an org like bytedance, or if things are siloed to the point
| that the eng orgs are basically separate with limited Chinese-
| English collaboration outside of certain management teams.
|
| PS: If you're interested in learning more Chinese tech terms,
| I've put together an Anki deck of 330+ cards with example
| sentences.
|
| Anki deck: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1351796314
|
| Preview of cards + list of sources:
| https://computerlab.io/2023/06/08/chinese-software-engineeri...
| qwezxcrty wrote:
| "lunzi"'s meaning is close to it's literal translation: wheel,
| as in Python Wheels and "reinventing wheels".
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