电子邮件 : diànzǐ yóujiàn - email

In English we haven't fully decided if it should be "email", "e-mail" or "E-mail". But in Chinese it's usually 电子邮件 (diànzǐ yóujiàn). This simply combines "electronic" and "mail". Sometimes it gets abbreviated to 电邮 (diàn yóu). (OK, I've also seen 伊妹儿 for email, this is probably phonetic).

Getting the less interesting second half out of the way first, 邮 (yóu) is "postal" and is used in many postal related words for stamps and post office etc. 件 (jiàn) we've seen before in 软件. So 邮件 ("mail") is a postal piece.

But 电 (diàn) is another really common and useful character in high-tech terms, and also easy to remember and recognize. It originally meant "lightning". Think of it like a cloud, the little hook below is the lighting coming down. This can be even more clear in the traditional version, here it is in a large size so you can see it: 電. The top part means "rain", you can see the little raindrops in there.

Nowadays 电 also means "electricity". 电子 (diànzǐ) is "electron" or "electronic" (子 can mean "child" but also "seed". It can be a diminutive, but is often added to a character to make a two-syllable noun). If you see 电, you can be pretty sure that it's something electrical or electronic. Some more common words are 电话 (diànhuà, "electric-speech") or "telephone", and 电脑 (diànnǎo, "electric-brain") meaning "computer".

博客 : bókè - blog

A new word entered English via the Internet a few years ago. Probably a good many Americans still don't know the word "blog". Chinese have created the term 博客 (bókè) for "blog" (thanks to 吴老师 for this one).

I suppose this is mostly a phonetic translation. The meaning is something like "learned-guest". 博 (bó) appears in 博士 (bóshì) "Ph.D." and 博物 ((bówù) ) "natural science" from which we get 博物馆 (bówùguǎn) "museum".

Most Chinese words that end with 客 (kè) seem to be some kind of person. So I'd have expected 博客 to mean some kind of learned person, like a scientist.

Another term is 网络日志 (wǎnglù rìzhì) which probably translates as a more formal "web log". I've also seen this shortened to 网志, which may be a play on 同志 (tongzhi), the old word for "comrade" now appropriated as slang for "gay".

• 什么是博客 [What is a Blog？] - Some history of the blog and the English and Chinese words


• Chinese Blogger Conference 2006 [中文网志年会]


• Chinese blogs
• Blogger supports Chinese!

软件 : ruǎnjiàn - software

软件 (ruǎnjiàn) is "software". 软 (ruǎn) is "soft" (or "weak" or "gentle"). 件 (jiàn) is a piece of something. It's a measure word for various things that come in pieces, such as clothing.

Microsoft is translated into Chinese as 微软 (weiruan). A very literal translation, it means "tiny and soft". It takes a big man to name a company like that. Or maybe Bill was only thinking with his head.

• Chinese Software Industry Association (中国软件行业协会) - [English]
• Bai Du (百度) list of software download sites

互联网 ： hùliánwǎng - Internet

互联网 (hùliánwǎng) is "Internet". Literally this is "mutual-connect-net". You might sometimes see the longer form 互联网络 (hùliánwǎnglù). 网络 (wǎnglù, "net-road") is "network".

The character 网 (wǎng) is particularly useful and interesting. Fortunately in the simplified form it is also easy to recognize! As in English, the term for a computer network comes from the word for a rope net like a fishing net. You can see the character looks something like a net.

网 appears in many words for networking, as well as Internet and web related terms. Important ones are 网站 （wǎngzhàn) "website", 网址 (wǎngzhǐ) for network or web address and 万维网　(wànwéiwǎng) "World Wide Web" (literally something like "ten-thousand-tied-web"). Note how nicely the Chinese term starts with three "W" sounds. (And is shorter than the English term; oddly "WWW" is an acronym in English that actually has more syllables than the term it stands for!).

Another net-related term using 网 is a good example of the kind of trouble you can get into if you don't pay attention to your tones: 网吧 (wǎngbā) is "Internet Cafe" (or bar, 吧 likely being already used phonetically for the English word), while 王八 （wángbā) although literally "tortoise" means a cuckold, from 王八蛋　(wángbādàn, "turtle's egg") meaning "bastard". (Thanks to 林老师 from first-year Chinese for this tip!)

The second character in 互联网 is 联 (lián), "connect, join". This you'll see as the first character in 联想 (liánxiǎng), the Chinese name for Lenovo, the maker of the (formerly-IBM) Thinkpad. The company name means something like "connected-thinking" or "think together" or "mentally associate with". Kind of interesting considering IBM's old motto.

• China Internet NIC
• China Next Generation Internet Project [下一代互联网]
• 互联网周刊 - China Internet Weekly
• Wikipedia on 万维网

科技 : kējì - technology

A good place to start out. 科技 (kējì ) is "technology". 高科技 (gāo kējì ) then is "high-technology".

Individually the characters mean "a branch of study" (like the English "-ology") and "skill or technique".

Soon I'll get around to getting the tone marks in here, and make the characters links.

• Google Technology News in Chinese （简体字）
• Engadget Chinese （简体字 or 繁体字）
• Sina (新浪) Technology News
• tom.com Technology News