Good News Br. Pīnyīn Plus Material Matching the 2019-08 Printing Added Covering Up to the End of Lesson 4, Question 3

The most recent official version of the Mandarin Good News brochure is now the 2019-08 (2019 Nián 8 Yuè) version. It uses significantly revised wording compared to the previous 2018-03 version, similarly to how the most recent 2019 (nwt) version of the Mandarin NWT Bible uses significantly revised wording compared to the previous version of that publication.

The Pīnyīn Plus resources based on the Mandarin Good News brochure are in the process of being revised to match the most recent 2019-08 version, with notes indicating where any material still based on the older 2018-03 version remains:

• Good News Br.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, EPUB)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing basic Bible teachings,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Good News brochure,
  2019-08 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  “flashcards” integrated with the text,
  (tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
  tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
  Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced,
  and 📘 Reveal None controls for
  all the “flashcards” in a lesson, paragraph, etc.,
  links for getting around,
  picture thumbnails & links, audio links,
  video thumbnails & links,
  supports offline use & annotation)
• Good News Br.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing basic Bible teachings,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Good News brochure,
  2019-08 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  Can be used offline in supporting browsers,
  “flashcards” integrated with the text,
  (tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
  tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
  Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced,
  and 📘 Reveal None controls for
  all the “flashcards” in a lesson, paragraph, etc.,
  links for getting around,
  picture thumbnails & links, audio links,
  video thumbnails & links,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Brochures >
  Good News Brochure Links (tiandi.info/fg)

In the above resources, material matching both the most recent 2019-08 Printing of the Mandarin Good News brochure and the most recent 2019 Printing (nwt) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:

Fully Proofread:

• Front Cover to the end of Lesson 4, Question 3

Partially Proofread:

• Lesson 12, to the end of Question 4

More such revised Pīnyīn Plus material will be made available as time allows.

The above-mentioned resources also contain previously prepared material based on the previous 2018-03 Printing of the Mandarin Good News brochure:

Proofread Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Up to the end of Lesson 5, Question 3

Partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Lesson 5, Question 4 to the end
• 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.

Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” added for all expressions:

• Up to the end of Lesson 6

Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” added for the more advanced expressions:

• Up to the end of Lesson 12

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, since such material should not be considered to be infringing on copyright, and since such material is specifically designed to be, not spiritual food, but rather, material for language learning. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Teach Us Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available Covering Up to the End of Ch. 9

The Mandarin Teach Us (bhs) book is now being studied at Mandarin Congregation Bible Study meetings, and it is also featured as an ongoing part of the Teaching Toolbox in the JW Library app. In other ways too, it has recently received much official attention.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more covering up to the end of Chapter 9 of the Mandarin Teach Us book is now available here:

• Teach Us Bk.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing important Bible teachings,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Teach Us book,
  2019-06 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  Can be used offline in supporting browsers,
  “flashcards” integrated with the text
  (tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
  tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
  Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  chapter, paragraph, etc.,
  links for getting around,
  picture thumbnails & links, audio links,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  Teach Us Book Links (tiandi.info/bhs)

In the above resource, the following web material is now available for the Mandarin Teach Us book:

Proofread Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Beginning to the end of Ch. 1, Par. 9

Partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Ch. 1, Par. 10 to the end of Ch. 9
• 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.

Production of partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material or more should be able to keep pace with the Mandarin Congregation Bible Study schedule. Additional work such as adding more Pīnyīn Plus inline flashcards and additional proofreading will be done as time allows.

Note that like most of the other Pīnyīn Plus web material resources, the above resource can be used offline in supporting browsers.

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, since such material should not be considered to be infringing on copyright, and since such material is specifically designed to be, not spiritual food, but rather, material for language learning. See this disclaimer for more information.)

New Resource: Bible Teach Bk. Pīnyīn Plus Web Material

The Bible Teach (bh) book has been an important book for conducting Bible studies for a long time. So, Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material for it have been worked on for a long time. The following Pīnyīn Plus web material resource for the Bible Teach (bh) book is now available:

• Bible Teach Bk.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing important Bible teachings,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Bible Teach book,
  2017-03 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  Can be used offline in supporting browsers,
  “flashcards” integrated with the text
  (tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
  tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
  Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  chapter, paragraph, etc.,
  links for getting around,
  picture thumbnails & links, audio links,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  Bible Teach Book Links (tiandi.info/bh)

In the above resource, the following web material is now available for the Mandarin Bible Teach book:

Proofread Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Beginning to the end of Ch. 1, Par. 10

Partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Ch. 1, Par. 11 to the end of Ch. 14, Par. 19;
• Appx. 1 to Appx. 9
• 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.

Production work on the above resource had to be diverted for a while to focus on the Teach Us book Pīnyīn Plus web material resource, but fortunately, there is much overlap and synergy between these two resources. E.g., it seems that the scriptures used are basically the same. So, going forward, work on one of these resources will have an unusual amount of applicability to the other one as well.

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, since such material should not be considered to be infringing on copyright, and since such material is specifically designed to be, not spiritual food, but rather, material for language learning. See this disclaimer for more information.)

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Pīnyīn Plus Web Resource Matches the 2019-11 Official Mandarin Version on the WOL

[How is the text of the 2019-11 official Mandarin version of the “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) book different from that of the previous version? This paragraph below explains.]

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the current songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has the link and additional information.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file (2020 Nián 3 Yuè Printing) only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation 🎼.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation 🎼) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

The official Pīnyīn “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) web material that is now available on jw.org and on the WOL addresses some of the above challenges, but it still does not put musical notation 🎼 together with Pīnyīn, and it still gives prime display real estate to Chinese characters, at the expense of the Pīnyīn.

This resource that seeks to help with the above-mentioned challenges has been confirmed to match the text of the 2019-11 official Mandarin version of the “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) book on the WOL:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (rich information about the Mandarin speech
  used for Kingdom songs,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin “Sing Out Joyfully” book,
  2019-11 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: “flashcards” integrated with the text,
  (tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
  tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

What’s different? It seems that the 2019-11 version of the Mandarin “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) book is all about revising the usage of halfwidth/fullwidth punctuation characters in the Hànzì (Chinese characters) text, e.g., “,/，”. (Like so many things related to Chinese characters, they’re complicated. For reference, see Halfwidth and fullwidth forms on Wikipedia.) Fortunately, Pīnyīn Plus material like that in the resource above uses Pīnyīn as its default writing system, so it simply does not ever use the fullwidth punctuation characters used in Hànzì (Chinese characters) text. Computer programmers would say that material that is primarily Pīnyīn—such as Pīnyīn Plus material—thus by definition eliminates a whole class of bugs 🐛.

Scheduling notes:

• Partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more is available for all the songs in the “Sing Out Joyfully” (sjj) songbook.
• Mandarin 2019 regional conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation 🎼 are available for all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2019–2020 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation 🎼 are available for all the songs scheduled.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation 🎼 in the above resource, expressions in the Pīnyīn lyrics do not trigger a Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” to appear next to them as usual, because the lyrics need to stay aligned with the musical notation 🎼. As time allows, links will be added to Pīnyīn lyrics in the material with musical notation 🎼. Each of these links will cause a Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” to appear near the top of the display.

Previously, musical notation 🎼 in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation 🎼 for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

[NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, since such material should not be considered to be infringing on copyright, and since such material is specifically designed to be, not spiritual food, but rather, material for language learning. See this disclaimer for more information.]

Teach Us Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available Covering Up to the End of Ch. 8

The Mandarin Teach Us (bhs) book is now being studied at Mandarin Congregation Bible Study meetings, and it is also featured as an ongoing part of the Teaching Toolbox in the JW Library app. In other ways too, it has recently received much official attention.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more covering up to the end of Chapter 8 of the Mandarin Teach Us book is now available here:

• Teach Us Bk.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing important Bible teachings,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Teach Us book,
  2019-06 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  Can be used offline in supporting browsers,
  “flashcards” integrated with the text
  (tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
  tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
  Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  chapter, paragraph, etc.,
  links for getting around,
  picture thumbnails & links, audio links,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  Teach Us Book Links (tiandi.info/bhs)

In the above resource, the following web material is now available for the Mandarin Teach Us book:

Proofread Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Beginning to the end of Ch. 1, Par. 9

Partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Ch. 1, Par. 10 to the end of Ch. 8
• 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.

Production of partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material or more should be able to keep pace with the Mandarin Congregation Bible Study schedule. Additional work such as adding more Pīnyīn Plus inline flashcards and additional proofreading will be done as time allows.

Note that like most of the other Pīnyīn Plus web material resources, the above resource can be used offline in supporting browsers.

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, since such material should not be considered to be infringing on copyright, and since such material is specifically designed to be, not spiritual food, but rather, material for language learning. See this disclaimer for more information.)

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for All the Songs in the Book

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the current songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has the link and additional information.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file (2020 Nián 3 Yuè Printing) only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation 🎼.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation 🎼) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

The official Pīnyīn “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) web material that is now available on jw.org and on the WOL addresses some of the above challenges, but it still does not put musical notation 🎼 together with Pīnyīn, and it still gives prime display real estate to Chinese characters, at the expense of the Pīnyīn.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more for all the songs in the Mandarin “Sing Out Joyfully” songbook is now available in this resource that seeks to help with the above-mentioned challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (rich information about the Mandarin speech
  used for Kingdom songs,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin “Sing Out Joyfully” book,
  2017-12 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: “flashcards” integrated with the text,
  (tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
  tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more is available for all the songs in the “Sing Out Joyfully” (sjj) songbook.
• Mandarin 2019 Memorial meetings: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation 🎼 are available for the songs recommended.
• Mandarin 2019 regional conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation 🎼 are available for all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2019–2020 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation 🎼 are available for all the songs scheduled.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation 🎼 in the above resource, expressions in the Pīnyīn lyrics do not trigger a Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” to appear next to them as usual, because the lyrics need to stay aligned with the musical notation 🎼. As time allows, links will be added to Pīnyīn lyrics in the material with musical notation 🎼. Each of these links will cause a Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” to appear near the top of the display.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation 🎼 and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation 🎼 material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation 🎼 material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation 🎼 in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation 🎼 for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

[NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, since such material should not be considered to be infringing on copyright, and since such material is specifically designed to be, not spiritual food, but rather, material for language learning. See this disclaimer for more information.]