Pīnyīn Plus: The Next Generation
As of this writing, about halfway through 2026, one recent set of analytics data from my web server hosting various kinds of Mandarin field language learning resources suggests that there continue to be relatively many Mandarin field language learners who like the 3-line format of always-visible parallel lines of Pīnyīn, English, and Chinese characters. Interestingly, though, other recent data from the same source suggests that there is also a relatively large and growing number of Mandarin field language learners who appreciate seeing just Pīnyīn on its own.
Some say that they find “just” Pīnyīn to be “lacking in meaning”, but it’s evident that, because of deeply ingrained tradition and habit, as well as a huge ball and chain (one of the biggest ever) of cultural inertia, such ones have simply become accustomed to the peacocky (and potentially linguistically idolatrous) visual displays of Chinese characters, and are just not yet used to seeing Pīnyīn on its own. Also, Pīnyīn straightforwardly represents Mandarin speech, and experience has shown that many Mandarin field language learners, for example, who have followed tradition and focused on Chinese characters have thus neglected Mandarin speech. Naturally, then, they are not yet very familiar with Mandarin speech, with the result that they are not able to get much meaning out of Pīnyīn. Another possible factor is that such ones may be using the only-sometimes relevant-to-meaning visual designs of characters as a crutch to compensate for their lack of actual understanding of Mandarin speech—dependance in addition to misplaced focus—and so they may feel out of their comfort zone if they see only Pīnyīn, and they voluntarily reach for the ball and chain of the characters instead.
Apparently, though, more and more Mandarin field language learners are getting used to seeing Pīnyīn being used on its own as the full writing system that it actually is, and not just as a pronunciation aid. Also, it seems that more and more Mandarin field language learners are gradually succeeding in actually getting familiar with Mandarin speech, resulting in them being able to appreciate more and more the rich meaning that has been baked into “just” Pīnyīn all along, since, as mentioned above, Pīnyīn is just a straightforward representation of Mandarin speech, and, as God’s Word itself says at 1 Corinthians 14:10, “no kind [of speech] is without meaning”.
At this point, it’s probably good to be reminded of what our primary goal as Mandarin field language learners should be, as shown by the above-mentioned scripture and some of its surrounding context:
“For if the trumpet sounds an indistinct call, who will get ready for battle? In the same way, unless you with the tongue use speech that is easily understood, how will anyone know what is being said? You will, in fact, be speaking into the air. It may be that there are many kinds of speech in the world, and yet no kind is without meaning. For if I do not understand the sense of the speech, I will be a foreigner to the one speaking, and the one speaking will be a foreigner to me.”—1 Corinthians 14:8–11.
Yes, it’s true that the world’s traditional Mandarin language instructors emphasize learning Chinese characters—all the better to perpetuate and glorify traditional worldly human Chinese culture, that many of them are quite proud of. However, what does Jehovah God himself say, our Grand Creator who actually invented human language and custom-designed our bodies to use it? He plainly tells us in his Word that in order to effectively share the good news and glorify God—not just some imperfect humans and their culture—in a foreign language, what we really need to master is actually that language’s “speech that is easily understood”.
A Default Twilight Zone?
In an effort to be in harmony with that basic principle, when Pīnyīn Plus material was first developed, its default setting was to show only Pīnyīn, which directly represents Mandarin speech—the Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards”, with the associated English translations, Chinese characters, etc., would only be shown when the user actively did something, like tap or click on a Pīnyīn expression or select the option to show all the “flashcards”. However, I was concerned that new users would never know to do something to display the “flashcards”, since many of them were probably used to how 3-line material (and pre-existing reading material in general) just shows all its available information all the time, without users having to do anything special after loading it. So, they might never realize that the kind of information that they were used to from 3-line material (even more information than that, actually) was available, and that it was just initially hidden to promote focus on the Pīnyīn and the Mandarin speech it represents.
To help clue users in to the fact that in Pīnyīn Plus material, “flashcards” full of rich language-learning information are available on demand for them to see, I added to the Pīnyīn Plus format the ability to mark, behind the scenes, certain selected relatively advanced Pīnyīn expressions, and I changed the initial default setting to show the “flashcards” for only these selected relatively advanced expressions when a page of Pīnyīn Plus material is loaded. (This is the “ 📄 Reveal Advanced ” setting, selectable at the top of each page of Pīnyīn Plus material.) This helps to give new users a taste of the rich information available in the Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards”, but it seems that it also puts Pīnyīn Plus material into what for some may be an unsatisfactory twilight zone.
On the one hand, 3-line material satisfies those who are used to seeing everything all the time, as was the only option in the old world of paper, from which 3-line material sprang. For example, English-speaking Mandarin learners who are just starting out on their Mandarin learning journeys undoubtedly find it comforting that the English lines are always visible, providing them a place of safety from which to dip their toes into the murky waters of Mandarin. 3-line material’s always-visible parallel lines also allow Mandarin learners of any level to get into a flow on any one of the available lines, and still instantly refer to one of the other lines as needed or desired. (However, some users find that always being presented with all the English, all the Pīnyīn, and all the Chinese characters is, well, a lot. Also, the always-visible English lines present a constant temptation to English-speaking users, for them to mentally just stay much of the time in the safe and comfortable domain of English. Thus, “getting into a flow” along the always-visible English lines can turn into “being in a rut”, and as time passes, the strange waters of Mandarin remain strange and murky, and never clear up.)
On the other hand, Pīnyīn-only material satisfies those who are used to seeing one writing system at a time (the vast majority of people, for all of their lives), and who have become familiar enough with the Pīnyīn writing system and the Mandarin speech that it represents that they don’t need or want to see anything else, even if they don’t understand some of the Mandarin expressions they encounter. In comparison, Pīnyīn Plus material, with its inline “flashcards” (some of which are visible by default), kind of forces people to occasionally mentally change gears and think about, for example, Mandarin and its meanings and how they relate to English and its meanings. People who are in learning mode and on the lookout for such information probably don’t mind this, and may even welcome this, but when people are just wanting to get through the material with a certain procedural goal in mind (e.g., “I just want to read this out”, or “I just want to follow along as someone reads this out”), they may find the visible inline “flashcards” intrusive.
(On the top of each page of Pīnyīn Plus material, there’s a dropdown menu that lets people choose the “ 📘 Reveal None ” setting, which thereafter causes no “flashcards”, and thus only Pīnyīn, to be shown, allowing for smooth, uninterrupted reading. However, as one writer put it, the way humans are, “for most users, the default value is the only value.” Also, even though the Introduction pages of Pīnyīn Plus resources have text that explains this available setting, experience shows that most people don’t read long blocks of text that explain a website, an app, etc. So, if you have gotten this far in this post, congratulations: You are exceptional! 👍🏼)
The Next Generation
With the above observations in mind, and to hopefully better satisfy those who are focused on Pīnyīn and the Mandarin speech it represents—who thus according to 1 Corinthians 14:8–11 are on the right track—I am starting to roll out the next generation of the Pīnyīn Plus format, which I am calling Pīnyīn+. (It’s Pīnyīn Plus—it’s even pronounced the same—but more compact and streamlined.) Pīnyīn+ builds on the Pīnyīn Plus format in the following ways:
Pīnyīn Plus:
- This material is speech-first and mobile-first in design.
- The default Pīnyīn text simply and directly represents Mandarin speech, which should be our main focus.—1 Corinthians 14:8–11.
- Tapping/clicking on a Pīnyīn expression reveals a “flashcard” next to it showing its English meaning, Simplified character(s), Traditional character(s) (if they’re different), etc. Tapping/clicking on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn expression hides the “flashcard”.
- More than one “flashcard” can be shown at a time.
- 📖 📄 📘 icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and 📘 Reveal None re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.
Pīnyīn+:
- By default, no “flashcards” are displayed, and a + symbol indicates an advanced expression with an available “flashcard”. This default setting is shown at the top of each page as “ ➕ Reveal + Symbols ”.
- The “ 📘 Reveal None ” option causes “flashcards” and + symbols to not be displayed. (The “ 📄 Reveal Advanced ” option continues to be available for those who at least sometimes want to use it.)
- Pīnyīn expressions not marked with a + symbol may or may not have a “flashcard”. More “flashcards” may be added over time.
- 📖 📄 ➕ icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and ➕ Reveal + Symbols re all the “flashcards” and + symbols in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.
The + symbols used in Pīnyīn+ material are kind of like the reference symbols (+*) used in the NWT Study Bible material on the Watchtower Online Library, so hopefully that will help users understand them. Another change that is coming online with the Pīnyīn+ material is that in desktop browsers, the cursor will change to look like a hand with a pointing finger (something like 👆🏼) when it hovers over the 📖 📄 ➕ icons, over Pīnyīn expressions with a “flashcard”, and over revealed “flashcards”, showing that something will happen when these are clicked on.
Going forward, the overall plan is for any new material I produce to be in the new Pīnyīn+ format. Since Pīnyīn+ web pages can be added to existing Pīnyīn Plus web resources, these existing resources will become mixed Pīnyīn Plus / Pīnyīn+ resources for a time, as new Pīnyīn+ web pages are added and existing Pīnyīn Plus web pages are gradually updated to Pīnyīn+ format—easily identified by all the + signs—as time allows. (For example, as of this writing, Lesson 100 marks the beginning of the Pīnyīn+ material in the Learn From the Bible Bk. (Pīnyīn Plus / Pīnyīn+, Web) resource.)
It’s Better Now, But We’ve Just Scratched the Surface
The Blood brochure (hb) says that when someone suffers great blood loss, the first priority is to restore blood volume, and that “volume replacement can be accomplished without using whole blood”. Similarly, in the early days of the worldwide expansion of the Mandarin field that has brought us to the present day situation, many publishers who were not native speakers of Mandarin came to help in the Mandarin field, and helped to at least fill out the volume of people in the field. They often also brought a beneficial cultural breath of fresh air, and many Chinese people, both publishers and interested ones, could feel their out-of-this-world true Christian love, even if, especially in the beginning, their attempts at Mandarin were not always biāozhǔn (according to the standard)! (Proverbs 27:17; John 13:35; 17:16) Many such helpers from other language fields especially appreciated language-learning material like the 3-line material, with its always-visible lines showing pronunciation, meaning, and the official characters writing system, bundled by expression.
Eventually though, just as Jehovah designed the human body with mechanisms to build up the required number of actual oxygen-carrying red blood cells if they are lacking, the worldwide Mandarin field has eventually come to have more and more publishers in it who can actually understand and speak Mandarin fairly well, some of whom are native speakers and some of whom are language learners. Of course, due to the inhuman and inhumane complexity of the Chinese characters writing system, when faced with the Great Wall of Characters, even those who are fluent in Mandarin and relatively knowledgeable about characters regularly come across unfamiliar characters, or suffer from character amnesia.
The Great Wall of Characters makes things unnecessarily highly difficult even for those who are relatively knowledgeable about characters.
Another factor to keep in mind is that while the Mandarin congregations and groups in nations that mostly speak English, Spanish, French, etc. seem to be doing well overall these days, we have still really only scratched the surface of the worldwide Mandarin field, since about 95%—yes, 95%—of the world’s Chinese people live in mainland China, where the preaching work has been restricted for a long time. (Matthew 13:38) Also, since there are about 2½ times as many people on earth whose mother tongue is Mandarin, compared to the number of people whose mother tongue is English, in a way, there should really be about 2½ times as many publishers in the worldwide Mandarin field as there are in the worldwide English field. Yes, it looks like there’s still a huge overall need for more Mandarin field publishers, including many more Mandarin field language learners.
(The above is from a spreadsheet which contains source links. A PDF file (with working source links) for that spreadsheet can be downloaded here.)
Pīnyīn+ material is optimized for the evidently growing number of Mandarin field language learners who are relatively used to Pīnyīn (or are at least willing to try to get used to it), who have some familiarity with Mandarin speech (or at least prioritize it), and who want a smooth reading experience. (In this respect, it is what people who are knowledgeable about software call “opinionated”. At least the opinion it embodies is one that Jehovah seems to share, as noted above, as opposed to just what is traditionally taught and accepted among humans in Satan’s world.) As a plus, rich language-learning information is also available on demand, marked by visible but fairly unobtrusive user interface affordances. Thus, language learners in the Mandarin field of any experience level, from beginner to advanced, can be helped to better understand and speak this language with the most people on earth for whom it’s their mother tongue, probably in all of human history. Hopefully, this new kind of material will prove helpful to both new and lifelong students of Mandarin in the massive worldwide Mandarin field in the time ahead, as Jehovah and Jesus continue to direct the work as they see fit.
