Thursday, December 21, 2017

New Resource: “God’s Love” Bk. Pīnyīn Plus Web Material

Recent discussions with users have prompted me to develop a new type of material for language-learners in the Mandarin field. I am calling it Pīnyīn Plus material.


Pīnyīn Plus material is speech-first and mobile-first in design. It focuses on helping and encouraging publishers to learn Mandarin speech, the primary language skill required in the Mandarin field. (1 Co. 14:8–11) Taking advantage of modern computing device displays, Pīnyīn Plus material dynamically and interactively provides the language-learning and memory-strengthening benefits of flashcards, and integrates these benefits into the context of a publication’s Mandarin text, in the style of augmented reality (AR).


Some Pīnyīn Plus web material is now available for the “God’s Love” book, which is now being used in Mandarin Congregation Bible Study (CBS) meetings:

For now, fully proofread Pīnyīn Plus material (with all the “flashcards”) covering from the front cover to the end of Chapter 1, paragraph 3 is available. Also, partially proofread Pīnyīn Plus and Pīnyīn material covering to the end of Chapter 4 is available. Material with a grey background has been partially proofread. Pīnyīn material with a golden-hued background has been proofread, but not all of its “flashcards” have been added and proofread.



Note: Production of fully proofread Pīnyīn Plus material (with all the “flashcards”) for this resource is not expected to keep up with the Congregation Bible Study (CBS) schedule, considering the high quality and quantity of material that would be required, the available time, and the available manpower. Partially proofread Pīnyīn material (better at least than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be made available as time allows.


Hopefully, over the time that the “God’s Love” book is used for the Mandarin CBS, the material that does become available with this resource will provide a taste of what will be possible in time re using this speech-first, mobile-first resource while preparing for and participating in Bible studies, etc.


Meanwhile, older, more traditional 3-line material covering the entire “God’s Love” book is still available at this link:


Here is a link to some information about the thinking behind the design of Pīnyīn Plus material:

To expand on the points listed re the above resource, note that:

  • The material in the above resource has been carefully translated, rendered, and proofread. Material with a grey background has been partially proofread. Pīnyīn material with a golden-hued background has been proofread, but not all of its “flashcards” have been added and proofread.
  • The material in the above resource is based on the latest 2017-02 printing of the Mandarin “God’s Love” book. If you notice that some changes need to be made to the material in the above resource to bring it in line with revisions to the “God’s Love” book, please email me to let me know.
  • The linked full text of cited scriptures is included in the above resource, as time allows.
  • The above resource is mobile-friendly—the material is quite legible and usable on everything from desktop/laptop PCs and Macs to iPads and other tablets to iPhones and other smartphones.
  • In the above resource, links are used extensively to make it quick and easy to get around in the material, drastically reducing the amount of manual scrolling needed.
  • The above resource contains picture links which point to the official pictures on jw.org or the WOL.
  • The above resource contains links to the official Mandarin MP3 audio files on jw.org.
  • For your convenience, a short link (“God’s Love” Book Links (tiandi.info/lv)) is available for the above resources.

Also, the introduction explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.


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