Ideas for Language-Learning Projects

Last week’s Wt. study emphasized that it is good to have personal study projects. Recent blog entries here also mentioned that it is good to have language-learning projects to help one continue to progress in the language and avoid stagnation. Here are some ideas for language-learning projects that I could think of so far:

• Vocabulary
  
  
  • Set yourself a goal to learn a new word (or expression, or character, or idiom) every day, or five words every week, or something like that.
  
  
  • Seek to master the key expressions related to subjects you know you will soon be dealing with.


• Speaking and Reading
  
  
  • Try to use Chinese as much as possible when speaking with others. Remember, “use it or lose it!”
  
  
  • Set for yourself the goal of sounding like a native speaker. Be patient with yourself, but don’t be content to have a “外国人 (wàiguórén)” accent.
  
  
  • Seek to display all the qualities taught in the Theo. Min. School in your Chinese speech, just as in your native tongue.
  
  
  • Regularly practice reading Chinese out loud as well, since that is a separate skill from understanding the words in your mind. It is also a separate skill from conversing in your own words.


• Meetings
  
  
  • If there are Chinese meetings in your area, then prepare comments and assignments well and view them as opportunities to develop and learn better ways of expressing yourself in Chinese.
  
  
  • If you attend a Chinese Theo. Min. School, then especially view every talk assignment as such an opportunity.


• Field Ministry
  
  
  • Learn selected new magazine presentations from the pinyin km. Or, if you’re up for it, learn all of them! Rather than just memorizing them (although that’s a start), try figuring out how they are put together and adapting them so you can say them in your own words.
  
  
  • Memorize Chinese scriptures. Also, try to understand them in addition to just memorizing them. Practice saying them out loud, since, again, that is a separate skill from memorizing them in your mind.
  
  
  • View return visits and studies as opportunities to learn how to explain certain subjects in Chinese, and prepare accordingly.


• Pinyin and Chinese Audio & Video Publications
  
  
  • Maintain a complete collection of all the pinyin and Chinese audio & video publications from the Society that you might possibly use. Those that you receive may come in handy when you least expect it, and even if some items turn out to not be available in your area, then at least your order will help the Society to be more aware of the need for these publications. If you don’t order everything you need, then they may get the message that the need for pinyin and Chinese audio & video publications is not as great as it really is.
  
  
  • Make good use of whatever pinyin and Chinese audio & video publications are available to you! Use them while studying and preparing for meetings, talks, the ministry, etc., and take special note of characters and pronunciations you are not yet fully familiar with. Have the appropriate pinyin publication with you whenever the material is being discussed at a meeting, study, etc. A lot of special effort goes into producing these publications, especially the proofreading of the pinyin material, which takes a lot of time and effort, and if you think about it, the pinyin publications are produced pretty much just for those relatively few people like us who are still learning the language—the Chinese-speakers themselves sure don't need them, as a rule. So, don’t let them go to waste!


• Fun
  
  
  • While our work is serious, and lives are involved, it is not necessarily best to maintain a grim and humourless approach to learning the language. As human beings, it can be easier for us to stick with something and do well at it if we find something about it that we enjoy. So, see if you can find something that you like about the Chinese language, culture, people, or their history and check it out.
  
  
  • If there are certain Chinese movies or songs that you like, try following the dialogue instead of just reading the subtitles, or figuring out the lyrics instead of just listening to the music. You may even enjoy learning some Chinese songs well enough to have a go at them in a karaoke setting. :-) (Of course, be selective, as with any entertainment.)


• Links File Resources
  
  
  • Go over the many resources now listed in the Links file, and see if there are any that you may be able to use more fully. Part of the process of developing the extensively redesigned next version of the Links file requires me to carefully analyze each resource to decide how to summarize what it can help with, and even I was surprised at the scope of the usefulness of some of these resources which I had not analyzed so deeply before. (Note that the current “official” version of the Links file is still the 2006-09-01 version, but prototypes of the next version are available for those who are willing to help with “beta” testing, and the next “official” version should be ready soon. Stay tuned!)
  
  
  • Carefully study the translations in 3-line material that has been proofread, such as the Require brochure material. The Require brochure material especially has been carefully translated and proofread so that the English translation reveals how the Chinese is put together, including how certain characters are used in certain contexts. This material often also reveals the meanings of the individual characters used within common expressions, offering opportunities to gain greater understanding of why those expressions are put together the way they are. Hopefully more such proofread 3-line material will become available in the future as well.
  
  
  • Consider helping with some of the translating and proofreading work involved in producing and improving the 3-line materials. I can say from personal experience that regularly analyzing Chinese this way can help one improve one’s Chinese and gain greater insight into it. If you would like more information on how you can help with some of the 3-line projects, just email me.

Can any of you think of any other ideas for language-learning projects? If so, email me to let me know, and if I get a few good responses, I may list them in a future blog post.

A Request from Bangkok, Thailand

I recently got an email from Br. D. Herrmann, which said,

Dear brothers,

I got a request from a sister in Bangkok, Thailand. There a Mandarin-speaking brother or couple is needed to start a group and conduct a Chinese book study. The branch already granted that a group could immediately be started, if the above condition is fulfilled. By now there are no brothers there, only one Mandarin-speaking sister.

If you need further information, please send your questions. Also if you have the chance to visit Bangkok for some time to help, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Greetings
Dieter

For more information, you may email Br. Herrmann at 4Wang@gmx.net.

Alguns Conselhos para os que Ensinam e Aprendem Chinês

Note: This post contains a Portuguese translation of the previous post. Thanks to the one who provided the translation.

Recentemente, ao preparar um curso de Mandarim para os interessados no campo Chinês, um irmão me pediu para compartilhar quaisquer dicas e conselhos sobre o assunto. Abaixo estão os pontos compartilhados, baseados em minha própria experiência como professor e estudante de Mandarim, que também está de acordo com aqueles em que conversei com experiência no processo do aprendizado do Mandarim. (Na maioria das vezes estes pontos também se aplicam ao Cantonês.) Espero que estas dicas sejam realmente de ajuda.

• Enfatize a necessidade de aprender muito bem o pinyin e os tons bem no começo, e de ser disciplinado em dominá-los com precisão.


• Isto servirá de alicerce sobre como os estudantes irão ouvir e falar Mandarim. Se o alicerce de uma casa não for lançado corretamente, a estrutura inteira sofrerá todos os dias depois disto.


• Especialmente para os estudantes que nunca antes estiveram expostos aos diferentes sons e tons do Mandarim, em que o início é quando os estudantes estão formando hábitos no idioma, é que um pouco mais de esforço e tempo gasto em aprender bem no início pode ser útil em poupar anos de tempo e esforço em desaprender e superar maus hábitos e erros que de outra forma seria mais fácil.


• Obter um bom “som” do Mandarim é como aprender a tocar um novo instrumento musical. A pessoa tem que entender a teoria, mas também nada substitui a prática, porque os mecanismos físicos do corpo dela estão envolvidos – o mecanismo da audição da pessoa tem que aprender a distinguir corretamente os sons do Mandarim (Jó 12:11), e o mecanismo da fala e os músculos envolvidos, etc. tem que aprender a produzir estes sons. É exatamente a prática que faz com que estes mecanismos desenvolvam a “memória muscular”, terminais nervosos, etc. que os permitirá eventualmente a distinguir e produzir os sons corretos de modo inconsciente, assim como um bom pianista pode tocar mais rápido do que sua mente possa conscientemente guiar seus dedos, porque através da prática seus dedos “aprenderam” e “lembraram” por conta própria a como fazer.


• Enfatize a necessidade dos estudantes a trabalharem nisto de modo regular, em arranjos contínuos para continuarem a aprender mesmo depois quando o curso acabar, talvez em algum projeto pessoal.


• Tem se notado a tendência que alguns estudantes de Mandarim progridem até certo nível, fruto do curso inicial de Mandarim, daí “estacionam” ou até mesmo regridem depois disto por que não fizeram nada em específico para conter esta tendência.


• “Use-o ou perca-o” tem se provado veraz em se aprender e usar línguas.


• O progresso persistente por um bom período de tempo, mesmo que lento, acrescenta muito. Isto tem dado melhores resultados do que um progresso rápido em um curto período de tempo, seguido por negligência—o estudante deve ser como a tartaruga, não como a lebre.


• Por outro lado, alguns acham que não estão fazendo muito progresso, mesmo que estejam tentando já por um bom tempo. Na verdade, provavelmente devem estar progredindo gradualmente mesmo sem notar. Por exemplo, se alguém olhar continuamente para um relógio analógico que possui apenas os ponteiros da hora e minutos, vai parecer que não está se movimentando. Contudo, se a pessoa se ocupar com outra coisa e mais tarde olhar para o relógio, se o mecanismo do relógio tiver funcionando, ela vai ver claramente que o relógio se movimentou. Assim é progredir em aprender o Mandarim, se mantermos o mecanismo do aprendizado funcionando, o progresso é automático.

Advice for Those Teaching and Learning Chinese

Recently, a br. preparing to put together a Mandarin course for those interested in the Chinese field asked me to share with him any advice I had to give. The points I shared with him, based on my own years of experience as a Mandarin teacher and student, and that I find are agreed upon by those I've spoken to with experience in the Mandarin-learning process, are below. (The points generally apply for Cantonese as well.) I hope they will be found to be helpful.

• Emphasize the need to learn the pinyin and the tones very well from the very start, and to be disciplined about getting them right.


• These are the foundation for how the students will hear and speak Mandarin. If the foundation of a house is not laid right, the whole structure will suffer every day after that.


• Especially for students who have not been exposed to the alien sounds and tones of Mandarin before, the beginning is when students are forming habits re the languages, and a little extra time and effort spent getting it right at the beginning can save possibly years of time and effort unlearning and overcoming bad habits and errors that would otherwise be picked up.


• Getting good at the “sound” of Mandarin is like learning a new musical instrument. One has to understand the theory, but there is also no substitute for “hands-on” practice, because physical mechanisms of one’s body are involved—one’s hearing mechanism has to learn to properly distinguish the sounds of Mandarin (Job 12:11), and one’s speech mechanism and the involved muscles, etc. have to learn to produce those sounds. Practice is what allows those mechanisms to develop the “muscle memory”, nerve connections, etc. that will allow them to eventually distinguish and produce the right sounds without conscious thought, like a good pianist can play faster than his mind can consciously guide his fingers, because through practice his fingers have “learned” and “remembered” on their own how to do so.


• Emphasize the need for the students to work out regular, ongoing arrangements for themselves to keep learning after the course is over, perhaps by choosing projects for themselves.


• Some have noticed a tendency for Mandarin students to progress to a certain level as a result of their initial Mandarin course, then “plateau” or even gradually decline after that if they don’t do anything specific to counter it.


• “Use it or lose it” has been found to truly apply to learning and using languages!


• Persistent progress over an extended time, even if it's slow, adds up. That ends up with better results than quick progress for a short time, followed by neglect—one should be like the tortoise, not the hare.


• Some may feel that they are not making much progress, even though they have been trying for an extended time. Actually, they probably have been making gradual progress without noticing it. E.g., as one stares at an analogue clock with just hour & minute hands, it does not seem to be moving. However, if one gets busy with something and checks back later, as long as the clock mechanism was working, one will see that the clock hands have indeed moved. Progress in Mandarin can be like that, as long as we have a learning mechanism set up and it keeps working.

Update: There is a very good article that language-learners should read in the January 8, 2000, issue of Awake!, pages 12-13, called “You Can Learn Another Language!”. It is currently online here.

Update: This subject is explored in more depth in the “General Advice for Those Teaching and Learning Chinese” series of posts over at tiandi.info, starting with this one.

Zec. and Mal. Audio Files

The audio files for Zec. and Mal. have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

2007 Ed. Require Br. Material Up To Ch. 3 Posted

Material up to ch. 3 of the revised 2007 pinyin Require br. is now available from the Require Brochure (Chinese+Pinyin+English) page. More will be added when it is ready. The Chinese translation of the 2007 version has been significantly updated compared to the original version.

The files based on the original pinyin Require br. are still available.

Note: The page margins of all the 2007 Pinyin Require br. material have been revised to allow for more material per page, and thus fewer pages are needed overall. (There is now less margin area for notes, etc., compared to before, but the margins are still similar to those in recent pinyin material from the Society.) Also, a “gutter” has been added to compensate for the area needed for binding. Special thanks to a certain Mr. Lewis for prompting me onto the path that led to these enhancements.

Curso Chino de Budapest—Edición en Español

¡Hola! Me complace informarles que las instrucciones para el link de Mandarin Course from Budapest—Spanish que han aparecido en los últimos emails han sido traducidas al español. Esa página aparece ahora completamente en español y se llama Curso Chino de Budapest—Edición en Español.

La edición de Noviembre de 2007 del archivo Curso Chino de Budapest—Edición en Español se encuentra ahora disponible para descargarla desde esta página. Esta versión ha sido revisada y corregida.

In English:

Hello! I am happy to inform you that the instructions on the page linked to from the Mandarin Course from Budapest—Spanish link on recent Links emails have been translated into Spanish. That page is now completely in Spanish, and it is now called Curso Chino de Budapest—Edición en Español.

The November 2007 edition of the Spanish Budapest Mandarin Course file is now available for download from this page. This edition includes several corrections and refinements.

New Edition of Budapest Course Now Available

November 2007 editions of the English, Spanish, and Russian Budapest Mandarin Course files are now available for download from their respective web pages. This edition includes several corrections and refinements.

Na., Hab., Zep., and Hag. Audio Files

The audio files for Na., Hab., Zep., and Hag. have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

Ob., Jon., and Mic. Audio Files

The audio files for Ob., Jon., and Mic. have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

First 2007 Ed. Require Br. Material Posted

Some material based on the revised 2007 pinyin Require br. is now available from the Require Brochure (Chinese+Pinyin+English) page. More will be added when it is ready. The Chinese translation of the 2007 version has been significantly updated compared to the original version.

The files based on the original pinyin Require br. are still available.

A Sacrifice

This recent post on the PandaGator blog offers a personal experience about an interesting concrete example of the kinds of sacrifices and adjustments some make to further their service in the Chinese field.

For those for whom English is not their native tongue, this dictionary page tells us that “nuts” does not necessarily mean “insane; crazy”, since another meaning is “extremely enthusiastic”.

The Next Links Email Update Is In the Works

A few have asked about the current Links email. For now, the “current” version is still the 2006-09-01 one. I realize that much time has passed since it came out, and I apologize for this long period without a Links email update. Several factors have contributed to this, including my being quite busy for a time working on my local cong.’s territory data system.

However, I would like to assure everyone that I am indeed working on the next Links email update. In addition to the reason mentioned above, it is also taking longer than usual to produce because I have redesigned the format with the goal of making it much easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Speaking of which, there will be a good number of new resources, and of updates to existing ones. I am confident that the next Links email update will be worth the wait.

Older NWT Audio Files

Since several have requested it, all of the older NWT audio files, going back to when they began to be created with the Ps. 119 file, have again been made available for download from the NWT Audio Files page.

Clarification re "Proofreaders Wanted"

Re the Proofreaders Wanted post, Mark Lewis would like to offer this clarification:

'ALL I want is someone to check the pinyin against the Soc pinyin Wt. VERY easy. I think most think it's difficult. BUT it is VERY easy. The machine puts the English words in or I ask Babel or my students. I don't want anyone to translate it or even check the Chinese. Time: about 2 hours or less.'

Anyone interested in helping Mark out should email him here.

Da., Ho., Joe., and Am. Audio Files

The audio files for Da., Ho., Joe., and Am. have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

Complete Require Br. Material Posted

The complete Chinese, Pinyin, & English Require br. material has finally been posted on the Chinese, Pinyin, & English Require Br. page! Both Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions are available.

Those of you who had printed out previous incomplete versions of the material may want to reprint with the current version, as the English translations have been revised from the beginning to the end to conform with the latest development of my English translation system. Basically, my current system follows these principles:

• As far as possible, the meaning of each individual Chinese character is translated literally according to how it is used in the context in which it appears.


• Curly brackets, or braces, i.e. { }, are used to surround sets of English words that together convey the literal meaning of the Chinese character(s) they are above.


• When a single English word or a set of English words surrounded by curly brackets is over two or more Chinese characters, that means that it corresponds to the literal meaning of each of those Chinese characters.


• When literal translations do not make sense, or are not understandable enough, then the effective meanings are used instead, surrounded by square brackets, i.e. [ ].


• English words corresponding to Chinese characters that are selected for their sound and not their meaning, such as those used for many names, are not surrounded by square brackets. However, if necessary, they will be surrounded by curly brackets to specify which Chinese characters they correspond to.

While some other recent 3-line material has been released by others without being proofread, which does have the benefit of allowing the material to be released more quickly, this Require br. material has been carefully translated and proofread so that those learning Mandarin can reliably use it to help increase their insight into the meanings of the Chinese characters and how they are used in various contexts. However, the material may of course still contain errors. If you find any, email me to let me know.

Overseas Chinese

I recently came across this interesting article on overseas Chinese:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Chinese

A question arose regarding the population numbers used in the article, so someone clarified it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Overseas_Chinese#The_numbers_are_from.3F

Keeping in mind that these numbers are from a couple of years ago, that they're approximate, and that the actual figures are always changing, it is still interesting to note that if we for argument's sake say that there are now about 65 million Chinese outside of mainland China, and that there are about 1.3 billion Chinese inside mainland China (see this page, top left corner), that means that only about 5% of all the Chinese in the world are outside mainland China.

Proofreaders Wanted

Mark Lewis is looking for proofreaders to help with the various "3-line" material he produces. I can confirm from personal experience that while users of the material will obviously benefit, any who help out will also benefit themselves from the Chinese practice and research they will be doing. It would be up to you to decide how much or how little time you would be able to contribute to this.

Anyone interested in helping Mark out should email him here.

Require Br. Material Up to Ch. 15 Posted

Require br. material up to ch. 15 has been posted on the Chinese, Pinyin, & English Require Br. page. Previously, only material up to ch. 14 was available.

I will work to get ch. 16 finished as soon as possible so that this Require br. material can finally be complete.

Chinese Measure Words on Wikipedia

Someone just sent me this link to a great Wikipedia article on Chinese measure words:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_measure_word

It contains tables of measure words with columns for Traditional characters, Simplified characters, pinyin, Cantonese Yale romanization, and main uses.

What is Wikipedia? There is an explanation in their introduction. Of course, such an openly collaborative environment can be abused by some, especially in this world, but it can often heal itself, at least to a degree, and many have found Wikipedia to be at least one useful source of information on many things.

A Couple of Blogs by Floridians

I have recently come across a couple of interesting blogs written by fellow students of Chinese, who happen to be from Florida, USA. Here are the links, along with some excerpts from their About pages:

http://stephenanddianna.com/

“This website is dedicated to providing useful information for preparing, traveling and living in Taiwan. Hopefully, this online blog will answer alot of questions and mysteries about living in Taiwan. Plus we wanted a way to keep in touch with our family and friends. Send us an email if you’d like and just drop a comment. We hope you can live and enjoy this experience with us.”

http://pandagator.info/blog/

“This blog is dedicated to those learning Mandarin Chinese. Learning another language is not just about vocabulary and grammar, it’s also about the people who speak it. Their language is inextricably tied in with their history, their food, and their land.

“I also write about my own experience learning Mandarin as someone who lives on the other side of the world in Florida, USA. I comment on the unique challenges this sometimes presents.”

(Note that there is other content on this site besides the blog. It is listed in the Blogroll section on the right.)

Eze. Audio Files

The audio files for all of Eze. have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page, which has been revamped a little to better accommodate leaving links to older files there as well.

La. 1-5 Audio Files

The audio files for La. 1-5 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

The one supplying the files has decided to set the speed of the speech in them to the weighted average of the preferences expressed so far in our little poll in the Slow or Smooth? post. Any others who wish to express their preference may still do so there.

Require Br. Material Up to Ch. 14 Posted

Require br. material up to ch. 14 has been posted on the Chinese, Pinyin, & English Require Br. page. Previously, only material up to ch. 13 was available.

Pinyin Great Teacher Book Available

A version of the Great Teacher book with Simplified characters and pinyin is now available from the Publications (Mandarin) page. Many thanks to those who helped make this available.

The plan is for there to eventually be material for this book with added English as well, for those who prefer that, but at this point it is uncertain when it will begin to become available.

More Philadelphia Course Audio Files

More audio files have been received for the Philadelphia Mandarin course, replacing and expanding upon the audio files previously available. The audio files for this course have been reorganized according to the lesson they are for, and new download links have been created for them on the Philadelphia Chinese Course page.

Songbook alternative files Link

The Songbook alternative files link listed in recent Links emails is no longer working. For access to these files, please email D. Herrmann. I am still working on the next Links email update, which will include this change along with others.

New Version of CWPS for Word 2000+

Here is a message from the creator of CWPS:

A new version of CWPS (for Word 2000+) has been posted. Some improvements are:

• More extensive Mandarin and Cantonese dictionaries.


• Improved flashcards with 10 levels of difficulty.


• Easier installation.


• Improved dictionary searches.


• Built-in help file.


• Improved support for different Cantonese romanization schemes.


• Improved text conversion options to add pinyin and/or English to Chinese characters.

The installation password is unchanged. Existing usernames and passwords will continue to work with the new version.

Pinyin Songbook Revised

Here is a message from the one who produced the pinyin songbook:

A revised version of the pinyin songbook is now available on the Publications (Mandarin) page. There is also a page showing corrections that can be made manually to earlier versions to save reprinting the whole book. A few corrections have also been made to tones and Chinese characters but these do not appear in the list of corrections as they will not affect the way the songs are sung.

Audio File for 2nd Apr. 2007 g km Presentation

The Mandarin audio file for the presentation for the Apr. 2007 g from the Apr. 2007 km has been posted to the km Presentations Audio Files page.

Slow or Smooth?

[UPDATE 2008-09-01: Input for this poll is no longer required. Thank you for your participation.]

A question has arisen regarding how fast to set the computer voice used to create the NWT audio files. So far, these files have been created with a slower-than-normal speed setting of 250 points below the default. The default speed is that with which a China national would speak. The slower speed makes it easier to follow the pace of the voice, but the faster default speed results in a smoother reading.

If you would like to provide input regarding which speed you find to be best to help you learn Mandarin pronunciation, please download this zip file containing sample files recorded at different speed settings, compare them, and tell me your preference using the poll below:

sloworsmooth.zip

(The password is the same as the one for the NWT audio files.)

Note: This poll requires Javascript to work. Most modern browsers have this enabled by default.

Jer. 29-52 Audio Files

The audio files for Jer. 29-52 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

McBeaths in Trinidad

Adam & Rebekah McBeath, from Victoria, BC, Canada, are currently serving where the need is greater in the Chinese field in Trinidad. They share their experiences with us on their blog, McBeaths in Trinidad, at:

http://trinidadorbust.blogspot.com/

Fine experiences especially abound in the most recent posts—they are about the very successful Chinese Memorial meeting they just had, which was attended by 103, including 63 Chinese.

Do you know of any other blogs published by those serving in the Chinese field? If so, please let me know. Also, remember, whether you are publishing a blog or reading one, always exercise appropriate discretion.

Update: If you are interested in reading the McBeaths in Trinidad blog, email me and I will forward your request to Adam, who must arrange for access.

Help Needed in Culiacan, Mexico

I recently got an email indicating that the Chinese group in Culiacan, Mexico could use some extra help for a few months, starting in May. Anyone who can stay longer to help is welcome too. :-) For more details about who to email for more information, etc., download this file:

Help_Needed_in_Culiacan_Mexico.zip

The password for the zip file is the same as the one for the km magazine presentations.

Passwords and This Blog

For those of you who received emails from me regarding the Mem. files mentioned in the previous two entries of this blog, please note that the emails contain an explanation regarding where passwords can be found. Please be sure to read the emails if you are wondering about that. Thanks!

Chinese+Pinyin+English Files for 2007 Mem. Invitation

Chinese+Pinyin+English Files for the 2007 Mem. invitation can be downloaded using these links:

• Simplified Chinese Version


• Traditional Chinese Version

The password for the zip files is the same as the one for the km magazine presentations.

Audio Files for 2007 Mem. Invitation

The Cantonese and Mandarin audio files for the presentation from the Feb. 2007 km for the 2007 Mem. invitation have been posted to the km Magazine Presentation Audio Files page.

UPDATE: Since there are now files for presentations that are for publications besides the magazines, and since there may be more in the future, the title of the km Magazine Presentation Audio Files page (as it is called in recent Links emails) has been changed to km Presentations Audio Files. The links in recent Links emails with the old title will continue to work, since the Internet address has not changed.

Jer. 1-28 Audio Files

The audio files for Jer. 1-28 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

Audio File for 2nd Feb. 2007 g km Presentation

The Mandarin audio file for the presentation for the Feb. 2007 g from the Feb. 2007 km has been posted to the km Magazine Presentation Audio Files page.

New km Magazine Presentations Page File, Format

The Mandarin audio file for the km presentation for the Feb. 15, 2007 w has been posted to the km Magazine Presentation Audio Files page.

Note also that the page’s format has been updated to make it easier to find a past presentation, which may be adapted and reused for presenting something else. As it now says on that page:

The presentation files linked to below are listed in chronological order based on the magazine issue they were originally for. However, note that the presentations have a basic structure of:

1. Discussion on a theme


2. Reading of a scripture


3. Offer of a magazine

So, it is relatively easy to adapt them for offering other literature as well by just changing the last element to whatever you want to offer, such as a brochure, a book, or a different magazine. To make it easier to find and reuse the presentations that have a particular theme or that use a certain scripture, an index is provided at the end of this page. Also, links in the Index Items column may be used to go to the indicated item in the index to see what other presentations there are with the same theme or scripture.

Since it is now much easier to find, adapt, and reuse them, I plan to eventually repost all the presentation files that are older than those currently on the page. I plan to continue to create and post new presentation files as well, as time allows. Since my time has been limited lately, though, I will be focusing first on Mandarin files, since that seems to be the more active field currently. However, I also plan to continue to produce Cantonese files when I can, since that is still a big field. In fact, the idea for this page and its audio files first came from an email exchange I had with a brother in the Cantonese field.

Isa. 52-66 Audio Files

The audio files for Isa. 52-66 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

Isa. 34-51 Audio Files

The audio files for Isa. 34-51 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

The Look for the Rest

I decided to go ahead and update the look of the rest of my Links web pages while the technique was fresh in my mind. Besides hopefully being nicer-looking, they should be easier to read and better to use now too - form is often function, especially when it comes to the presentation of information.

Interestingly, since the Links web pages attached to recent Links emails get their style information from a central CSS file on the web like my other web pages do, they will generally get an updated look too when the computers they are on are connected to the Internet. So, if that Links email you received months ago suddenly looks different, don't panic. :-)

Since I am now boning up on modern web design for a current project, other design tweaks may also filter through to my web pages in the days ahead as I climb this particular learning curve.

The Look

As you can see, I have taken advantage of the new Blogger site's customization options to tweak the look of this blog to better match the look of my other web pages, while keeping some of the more modern web design features of the template I used.

Some of the highlights of the resulting design:

• The top of the page is no longer cut off in MS Internet Explorer.


• The title now has a more "solid" look.


• The more modern centred, fixed-width design was kept.


• The Blog Archive links are now arranged hierarchically, and can be revealed or concealed by clicking on the disclosure triangles, or "twisties".


• The font used for the body text has been changed to match the font used on my other web pages.


• I kept the dark grey colour of the body text, as it is a bit easier on the eyes than maximum contrast black-on-white.


• I increased the font size to that used on my other pages, as I know that many on my mailing list are not as young as they used to be. Interestingly, using bigger text for better readability seems to be part of the current Web 2.0 web design trend.

I hope you enjoy the new look of this blog. Perhaps I will migrate some of the design features to my other web pages in the future as time allows. Of course, though, content will still be king. I have been very busy with other things lately, but hopefully I will have more time soon to devote to that. I will especially try to beef up the amount of audio content available, as I have gotten requests from different ones about that lately.