MEotW: fántǐ zì
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How are Chinese characters kind of like guitars?
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Monday, November 30, 2020
Monday, November 23, 2020
MEotW: Hànzì
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
What is the Korean connection? Do the Chinese languages need to be written using the extraordinarily complex Chinese characters? Will we be tourists or missionaries?
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Monday, November 16, 2020
MEotW: fāngyán
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Are Mandarin, Cantonese, etc. just dialects of “Chinese”? What‘s the difference between a dialect and a language? Why does it matter?
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Monday, November 09, 2020
MEotW: Yīngyǔ
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Are you unintentionally saying “I speak English writing” when you are trying to say “I speak English” in Mandarin?
en is the ISO 639-1 code and the IETF language tag for English.
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Saturday, November 07, 2020
Teach Us Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for the Whole Book
[NOTE: For spiritual food (which is for you yourself to learn spiritual things from, and which ideally should be in your own mother tongue), please go to jw.org. The supplementary language-learning material mentioned in this post is for helping you to learn about how the Mandarin language is used in an official publication, so that you will be better able to help others in the Mandarin language field.]
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 for the whole 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,
2020-08 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
can be used offline in supporting browsers,
icon can be added to the home screen
with 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. 13
Partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material, or more:
- Ch. 1, Par. 14 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.
Production of partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material or more has stayed ahead of the Mandarin Congregation Bible Study schedule. Work to advance the above resource towards having full coverage with proofread Pīnyīn Plus material will continue to be done as time allows.
Note that like several of the other Pīnyīn Plus web material resources, the above resource has the following features of progressive web apps (PWAs):
- It can be used offline in supporting browsers.
- Its icon can be added to the home screen with 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.)
Wednesday, November 04, 2020
Good News Br. Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material Matching the 2019-08 Printing Added Covering Up to the End of Lesson 5, Question 4
[NOTE: For spiritual food (which is for you yourself to learn spiritual things from, and which ideally should be in your own mother tongue), please go to jw.org. The supplementary language-learning material mentioned in this post is for helping you to learn about how the Mandarin language is used in an official publication, so that you will be better able to help others in the Mandarin language field.]
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 recent nwt version of the Mandarin NWT Bible uses significantly revised wording compared to the previous major 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 remains that is still based on the older 2018-03 version:
- 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,
icon can be added to the home screen
with 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 current 2019-08 Printing of the Mandarin Good News brochure and the current 2020 Printing (nwt) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:
Fully Proofread:
- Front Cover to the end of Lesson 5, Question 4
Partially Proofread:
- Lesson 12 to the end of Lesson 13, Question 2
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, some of which has been updated as indicated above:
Partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material:
- Lesson 5, Question 5 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.)
Monday, November 02, 2020
MEotW: guānhuà
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Why is Mandarin called “Mandarin” in English? Also, is Mandarin just a dialect?
Nope, it wasn’t because of mandarin oranges.
SirSadiq
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