MEotW: zìmǔ

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• 
• zìmǔ

Where do Chinese characters come from?

Comments are enabled on this blog, so if you are so inclined, comment away!

A news feed for this blog is available here.

Jehovah’s Will Br. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available Covering Up to the End of Lesson 9

[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 Jehovah’s Will (jl) brochure has been used on Bible studies for a long time, and it is now part of the Teaching Toolbox in the JW Library app. Unofficial previous-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English material for it have been available for years, which material was based on an older version of the Jehovah’s Will brochure. Now, the following current-generation Pīnyīn Plus web material resource, based on the most recent 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, is available:

• Jehovah’s Will Br.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing the people, the activities,
  and the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure,
  2016-11 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,
  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 >
  Jehovah’s Will Brochure Links (tiandi.info/jl)

In the above resource, material matching both the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure and the current 2020 Printing (nwt) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:

Fully Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Front Cover to the end of Lesson 1

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 2 to the end of Lesson 9

Also available is the following material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, in which the text of the 2016-11 Printing is different from the text of the previous printing:

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 14
• Lesson 17

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.

More current-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure will be made available in the above resource as time allows.

(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.)

MEotW: Pīnyīn

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• 
• Pīnyīn

Many believe that Pīnyīn is just a pronunciation aid. However, Pīnyīn actually qualifies as, and works well as, a full writing system for Modern Standard Mandarin.

What are some other common myths and misconceptions regarding Pīnyīn?

If a Mandarin expression can only be understood when it’s written in characters, then it will lead to a failure to communicate when it’s spoken.

If a Mandarin expression can be understood when it’s spoken, then it can be understood when it’s written in _Pīnyīn_. — Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) October 24, 2020

Comments are enabled on this blog, so if you are so inclined, comment away!

A news feed for this blog is available here.

Jehovah’s Will Br. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available Covering Up to the End of Lesson 8

[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 Jehovah’s Will (jl) brochure has been used on Bible studies for a long time, and it is now part of the Teaching Toolbox in the JW Library app. Unofficial previous-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English material for it have been available for years, which material was based on an older version of the Jehovah’s Will brochure. Now, the following current-generation Pīnyīn Plus web material resource, based on the most recent 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, is available:

• Jehovah’s Will Br.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing the people, the activities,
  and the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure,
  2016-11 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,
  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 >
  Jehovah’s Will Brochure Links (tiandi.info/jl)

In the above resource, material matching both the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure and the current 2020 Printing (nwt) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:

Fully Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Front Cover to the end of Lesson 1

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 2 to the end of Lesson 8

Also available is the following material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, in which the text of the 2016-11 Printing is different from the text of the previous printing:

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 14
• Lesson 17

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.

More current-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure will be made available in the above resource as time allows.

(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.)

tiandi.info, Links News, and MEotW on Twitter

If you use Twitter, have you checked out the Twitter account for this blog, and for the tiandi.info and Mandarin Expression of the Week blogs? Not only does it provide notifications about posts on these blogs, it’s also a place for short thoughts that don’t fit into any of these blogs, but that fit with them in spirit. For example:

Honour Jehovah God first. Don’t honour mere human cultural traditions first, no matter how proud that human culture is.

Actually, the more proud and arrogant a human culture is before God, the less we should honour it.

— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) December 14, 2020

One Bible study I had whose mother tongue was Mandarin had previously studied with the English-speaking brothers for 10 years. He wanted to get baptized, but the elders found he wasn’t clear on the immortal soul! I studied that with him in Mandarin for just 1 hour and he got it.

— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) December 13, 2020

There is a link to this Twitter account in the CHINESE FIELDS LINKS section at the top right of this blog’s web pages.

To follow the Twitter account for this blog, and for the tiandi.info and Mandarin Expression of the Week blogs, tap or click on this button:

Follow @TiandiLinksNews

Do you have any comments or questions on the above-mentioned blogs and Twitter account? Are there any other platforms that you would like to see related content on, like Instagram, etc.? Let me know by email or on Twitter!

MEotW: Zhùyīn

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• 
• Zhùyīn

After decades of using Zhùyīn, why did China move on to Pīnyīn?

Comments are enabled on this blog, so if you are so inclined, comment away!

A news feed for this blog is available here.

Jehovah’s Will Br. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available Covering Up to the End of Lesson 7

[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 Jehovah’s Will (jl) brochure has been used on Bible studies for a long time, and it is now part of the Teaching Toolbox in the JW Library app. Unofficial previous-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English material for it have been available for years, which material was based on an older version of the Jehovah’s Will brochure. Now, the following current-generation Pīnyīn Plus web material resource, based on the most recent 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, is available:

• Jehovah’s Will Br.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing the people, the activities,
  and the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure,
  2016-11 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,
  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 >
  Jehovah’s Will Brochure Links (tiandi.info/jl)

In the above resource, material matching both the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure and the current 2020 Printing (nwt) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:

Fully Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Front Cover to the end of Lesson 1

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 2 to the end of Lesson 7

Also available is the following material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, in which the text of the 2016-11 Printing is different from the text of the previous printing:

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 14
• Lesson 17

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.

More current-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure will be made available in the above resource as time allows.

(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: Jehovah’s Will Br. Pīnyīn Plus Web Material

[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 Jehovah’s Will (jl) brochure has been used on Bible studies for a long time, and it is now part of the Teaching Toolbox in the JW Library app. Unofficial previous-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English material for it have been available for years, which material was based on an older version of the Jehovah’s Will brochure. Now, the following current-generation Pīnyīn Plus web material resource, based on the most recent 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, is available:

• Jehovah’s Will Br.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (rich information about Mandarin speech
  for discussing the people, the activities,
  and the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
  as represented by the text of the
  Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure,
  2016-11 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,
  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 >
  Jehovah’s Will Brochure Links (tiandi.info/jl)

In the above resource, material matching both the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure and the current 2020 Printing (nwt) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:

Fully Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Front Cover to the end of Lesson 1

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 2 to the end of Lesson 6

Also available is the following material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure, in which the text of the 2016-11 Printing is different from the text of the previous printing:

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

• Lesson 14
• Lesson 17

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.

More current-generation Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material matching the current 2016-11 Printing of the Mandarin Jehovah’s Will brochure will be made available in the above resource as time allows.

(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.)

MEotW: jiǎntǐ zì

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• 
• jiǎntǐ zì

Are simplified Chinese characters the ultimate writing system for Mandarin and the other Chinese languages?

Comments are enabled on this blog, so if you are so inclined, comment away!

A news feed for this blog is available here.

Good News Br. Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material Matching the 2019-08 Printing Added Covering Up to the End of Lesson 5

[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

Partially Proofread:

• Lesson 12 to the end of Lesson 13

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 6 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.)