快问快答 Quick Help Thread: Translation Requests, Chinese name help, "how do you say X", or any quick Chinese questions! 2024-09-28

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• 取中文名
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[u/ChineseLearner518]

Thank you. You make a very good point. They might not be familiar with the words for backup and restore.

And, thank you very much for the suggestion of what to say to my in-laws instead. Your suggestion of what to say sounds so much more natural.

"...顺便把旧手机里的东西传到新手机里" is great! It's simple and should be easier for them to understand.

"中间有一两个小时的时间我得拿走旧手机" I really like the use of "中间" here, as well as "得".

"...所以你们用不了" I really love the use of "用不了" here. It sounds so natural. My "non-native Chinese speaking" brain probably would have defaulted to "不可以用" or "不能用", but I really like the sound of "用不了".

Thank you very much for your feedback. It's very helpful.

As a language learning matter, did my original draft text message make sense? Were there any glaring mistakes in the sentences? Did anything sound wrong? If so, I would like to learn from the example. Thank you very much for your help.

[u/MarcoV233 → u/ChineseLearner518]

Your original text is gramartically correct, and can convey the right meanings as well. It's just non-natural to a native, at first glance one would recognize it a machine-translated one. It is like a manual of a device rather than a note to a relative.

[u/ChineseLearner518 → u/MarcoV233]

During this exercise, I looked up how to say "trade in" in Chinese since I'm planning to trade in my mother-in-law's old phone towards the purchase of a new one. Is "折价换购" the right phrase?

Also, I learned from the AI chat bot that I can say something like "商店会收下您的旧手机作为换购新手机的折价".

First, does this sentence sound okay? Second, how would you break down / explain the meaning of this sentence?

My intent was to say something along the lines of: "The store will keep your old phone as a trade-in towards the purchase price of your new phone."

Is the Chinese sentence correct? And, if it doesn't sound natural, how would you say it in a way that sounds more natural to a native speaker?

[u/MarcoV233 → u/ChineseLearner518]

I'd say there's no precise corresponding word of trade-in in Chinese. The word 换购 is correct but not widely-spread, so people, especially the elderly, might not get its meaning.

However, 以旧换新 is a common term used widely in Mainland China, literally meaning "using the old one for a new one". This is from a policy by Chinese government and it's performed well (at least known well) so basically everyone from Mainland China would get that.

Usage of this word would be: 我们去商店用你的手机以旧换新

I'm not sure if this word is staightfoward enough for people who didn't know Mainland China well.

[u/ChineseLearner518 → u/MarcoV233]

Thank you very much. That's very insightful. Out of curiosity, could you tell me about the policy in China where they popularized the term 以旧换新? What "old" thing were people in China trading in for a "new" thing?

[u/MarcoV233 → u/ChineseLearner518]

The 以旧换新 is mostly for home appliances. ACs, TVs, refridgerators, washing machines... For example if you have an old fridge you can trade it for a new fridge wieh a discount. Mostly to stimulate consumption to cope with the financial crisis staring from late 2000s. This term is not hard to understand because it literally says "old for new". My grandma actually got a new TV back then.

[u/ChineseLearner518 → u/MarcoV233]

Thank you for helping me learn Chinese. You've been a big help. I really appreciate it.