The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Why does the current version of the Mandarin New World Translation Bible not use “shènglíng” to translate “holy spirit” like older versions did?
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[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.]
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.
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 scheduled for Mandarin 2021–2022 circuit assemblies have been posted to this resource that seeks to help with the above-mentioned challenges:
Screenshots of the above web resource on iPhone and on iPad 📱. (It can also be used offline with apps like GoodReader, Documents, etc.) Tap/click on a screenshot to see it full-size.
Scheduling notes:
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:
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.]
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
What does a Mandarin expression that literally means “new hat” have to do with COVID-19?
An electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
NIAID
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A news feed for this blog is available here.
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
“Réncí” is the word that the Mandarin New World Translation Bible uses to translate “kindness” when referring to the fruitage of the spirit. How can “réncí” be an adjective, a verb, and also a noun?
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A news feed for this blog is available here.
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Is it rational for Mandarin field language-learners to stop trying to focus on Chinese characters, the way some Chinese young people have stopped trying to keep up with China’s often oppressive work culture?
This Sixth Tone article is about how some cool cats are dropping out of the Chinese rat race.
Comments are enabled on this blog, so if you are so inclined, comment away!
A news feed for this blog is available here.
[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.]
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. Also, as of this writing, it appears that there is no option to display Pīnyīn on the jw.org web page for the concluding song for Mandarin 2021 conventions.
Unofficial language-learning materials for all the songs for Mandarin 2021 conventions, in the forms of proofread musical notation 🎼 with Pīnyīn lyrics and proofread Pīnyīn Plus lyrics, have been posted to this resource that seeks to help with the above-mentioned challenges:
Screenshots of the above web resource on an iPhone 📱. (It can also be used offline with apps like GoodReader, Documents, etc.)
Scheduling notes:
The Pīnyīn song 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:
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.]
[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.]
Nowadays, when we want to get a certain job done, many of us will reach for a smartphone or other computing device and look for a particular icon on the device’s home screen, since “there’s an app for that”. Now, Pīnyīn Plus web resources are in the process of adopting the ability of a Progressive Web App (PWA) to be installed on a user’s computing device and to add an icon to its home screen.
Combined with the ability to be used while offline (not connected to the Internet), this allows a suitably upgraded Pīnyīn Plus web resource to be launched from an icon on a computing device’s home screen and then just work like we have come to expect an app to work, even when the device is not connected to the Internet.
Installing a PWA and adding its website icon to your device’s home screen is simple. Instructions on how to add a PWA website’s icon to the home screen of an iPhone/iPad can be found here/here (at the bottom of each web page), and instructions on how to add a PWA website’s icon to the home screen of an Android phone using the Google Chrome web browser can be found here. On that same web page, instructions on how to add a PWA website’s icon on a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC-type computer using Google Chrome can be found here. (Recent desktop/laptop versions of the Microsoft Edge web browser work similarly, since they are now based on the same Chromium technology that desktop/laptop versions of Google Chrome are based on.) A chart showing what web browsers support this Add to home screen feature can be found here.
So far, the following Pīnyīn Plus web resources have been given the PWA-style ability to be installed on a computing device and to add an icon to its home screen:
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screen
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screen
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screen
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screen
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screen
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screen
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screen
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screenAs time allows, other Pīnyīn Plus web resources will also be enhanced with the ability to be installed on a computing device and to add an icon to its home screen.
[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.]
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 Lesson 53 of the Learn From the Bible book has been added to the following resource:
can be used offline in supporting browsers,In the above resource, the following web material is now available for the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book:
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.]
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
In the current version of the Mandarin NWT Bible, why is the Greek word for “peace” (ei·reʹne) not always translated as “píng’ān” or “hépíng”?
Comments are enabled on this blog, so if you are so inclined, comment away!
A news feed for this blog is available here.
