Text Messaging

[kailin]

How do you say "text message" in Mandarin?

And for those of you with cell phones in China: what do I need to know about text messaging before buying a cell? For example, do most models let you text in both English and Chinese?

kailin

[gougou]

A text message is 短信 (duan3xin4), or, in context, just 信息 (xin4xi1, meaning just message.)

I think all models available in China can type Chinese and English. When I bought my phone, I took the cheapest one they had (I think it's a Nokia 1100.) The menu is in English or Chinese, input for Chinese characters can be in pinyin or by strokes (but both only under the Chinese menu). English input of course is no problem under either menu language.

[kailin]

Thanks, Gougou. Out of curiousity, when did you buy your phone, and how much was it when you did? (I'm about to go phone shopping...)

[gougou]

I had it bought just like three weeks ago...

The phone, the prepaid SIM card (神州行 shen2zhou1xing2) and a 100 yuan charge came to about 650 yuan in total.

[kailin]

Thanks! That seems like a pretty good price, from what I have heard. Where did you buy it? And what kind of calls can you make/receive with your SIM card?

Kailin

[skylee]

How do you say "text message" in Mandarin?

It is also called 短訊 (duan3 xun4).

[gougou]

Well, as I said, I had it bought, so I am not sure where... The original plan was to go together, but Chinese sometimes are a bit overly helpful... I could tell you tomorrow, if that's still early enough? I wouldn't think that there is a big price difference for low-range mobiles, though.

As for types of calls, neither did I read the booklet nor have I tried myself yet... The only ones I can assure you are mobiles and Chinese fixed phones, haven't had anything else yet.

[kailin]

Thanks for the tip Skylee. And Gougou, I would love to hear where you got the phone, but don't go out of your way to find out--you're probably right about the basic pricing being pretty much the same.

[Junior]

Something else you may want to consider... The phone I bought can easily be changed from english input to chinese input when messaging, regardless of the language used to operate the phone. However I seem to recall that my friend could only input Chinese on her's if she had Chinese as the operating language... This gets annoying if you want to use your phone in English but often message in Chinese. Unless you know your way around your phone really well, or can understand all the Chinese terms used in the settings, you need to keep changing to and from English... Anyway if you're choosing a phone it won't hurt check it out to see if this is an issue.

[Junior]

The menu is in English or Chinese, input for Chinese characters can be in pinyin or by strokes (but both only under the Chinese menu).

Oh sorry, I think that's what gougou meant here... Well anyway if u can get one that lets u operate in English and still input Chinese its worth it, much less hassle. Unless you want to force yourself to use Chinese operating system to practice Chinese, but I found I relied on memory of what to press rather than actually "reading" the characters, so I prefer to use English.

[hughitt1]

in Taiwan, text message is 簡訊 (jian3 xun4).

[HSC]

Gougou,

神州行 means SIM Card? Sounds like "China Travel" Any explanation for this?

真奇怪！

[skylee]

There is nothing 奇怪. 神州行 is just a brand name. It means that using this brand, customers can roam in all of China. It is quite good brand name IMHO.

There are similar brandnames such as 任我行, 天地線 (this one is obsolete).

SIM card is the short form of "subscriber identity module" card. In chinese it is ususally just called "SIM 卡". But if you want to have it translated, "SIM" could be "用戶識別模組" or "用戶認證模組" or "用戶身分模塊", etc.

[gougou]

Ok, just found the receipt, it was bought at 大中, which if I remember well is the biggest chain for electrical appliances here. I think it is yellow with a red D, or was it the other way around?

Probably there would be lots of interesting information (as where the nearest store is located...) on their webpage, but they seem to have some trouble at the moment...

[kailin]

Thanks, Gougou!