Description
Chafic Kazoun, co-founder and CTO of B-Line Medical, wrote his first lines of code at eight years old and has spent his career building software that solves real problems, most recently a technology platform that trains and tests doctors and nurses in simulated healthcare scenarios. He notes that China is actively moving away from manufacturing-based industry toward software and creative technology, making 軟件 (ruǎn jiàn) one of the most important words in the modern Chinese vocabulary. In Chinese, software is 軟件 (ruǎn jiàn): 軟 (ruǎn) is soft, a word that applies equally to a teddy bear, a gentle personality, and the code running on your device, and 件 (jiàn) is a piece of something, a character combining a person and a cow, because in ancient China cattle were the most valuable assets and were counted as single precious units. 硬件 (yìng jiàn) is hardware, where 硬 (yìng) is hard, the exact opposite of soft. 電腦 (diàn nǎo) is computer: electric brain. 電腦軟件 (diàn nǎo ruǎn jiàn) is computer software.
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*⏰ TIMESTAMPS:*
0:00 - Introducing Chafic Kazoun and the word for software
1:00 - 軟件 (ruǎn jiàn): soft plus piece, and why 件 combines a person and a cow
1:45 - 硬件 (yìng jiàn): hardware, and why hard and soft are perfect opposites
2:15 - 軟體 (ruǎn tǐ): the Taiwanese way to say software, and why both are used
2:45 - 電腦 (diàn nǎo) and 計算機 (jì suàn jī): two ways to say computer in Chinese
3:30 - Chafic on why he still believes human intelligence matters more than AI
In Chinese, software is 軟件: a soft piece. Hardware is 硬件: a hard piece. The language built the entire computing vocabulary from two opposing physical sensations.
*📖 KEY VOCABULARY:*
Software: 軟件 / 软件 (ruǎn jiàn)
Soft: 軟 / 软 (ruǎn)
Very soft: 很軟 / 很软 (hěn ruǎn)
Item, a piece of something: 件 (jiàn)
A piece of clothes: 一件衣服 (yī jiàn yī fú)
Hardware: 硬件 (yìng jiàn)
Hard: 硬 (yìng)
Another way to say software: 軟體 / 软体 (ruǎn tǐ)
Computer: 電腦 / 电脑 (diàn nǎo)
Another way to say computer: 計算機 / 计算机 (jì suàn jī)
Computer software: 電腦軟件 / 电脑软件 (diàn nǎo ruǎn jiàn)
*👤 ABOUT THE GUEST:*
Chafic Kazoun is a technology entrepreneur who wrote his first lines of code at the age of eight. He is co-founder, chairman, and CTO of B-Line Medical, a technology platform for training and testing doctors and nurses through simulated healthcare scenarios. He is also an angel investor supporting innovative startups.
📱 Connect with Chafic Kazoun:
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/chafic
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chafic/
🌐 http://www.blinemedical.com/
*🎙️ ABOUT TALK CHINEASY:*
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