Monday, February 28, 2022

MEotW: Wūkèlán

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

Is “Wūkèlán” used in Mandarin to correspond with “Ukraine” because of the meanings of the characters used to write it, or because of how it sounds?


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


A news feed for this blog is available here.


Wednesday, February 23, 2022

New Resource: Enjoy Life Forever! Bk. 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 Enjoy Life Forever! (lff) book is now officially recommended for use on Bible studies, and it is now part of the Teaching Toolbox in the JW Library app. To help us Mandarin field language learners to be prepared language-wise to make good use of this new book without being unnecessarily hindered by the Great Wall of Chinese characters that’s mandated by mere human tradition and cultural pride, the following unofficial Pīnyīn Plus web material resource is being made available:

  • _Enjoy Life Forever!_ Bk. _Pīnyīn_ Plus web icon
  • Enjoy Life Forever! Bk.
    (Pīnyīn Plus, Web)

    (rich information about Mandarin speech
    for discussing basic Bible teachings,
    as represented by the text of the
    Mandarin Enjoy Life Forever! book,
    2021-09 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
    PWA Logo can be used offline in supporting browsers,
    PWA Logo icon can be added to the home screen
    with supporting browsers,

    “flashcards” integrated with the text,
    (tap/click on a Pīnyīn expression to reveal its “flashcard”,
    tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn expression
    to hide the
    “flashcard”),
    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, & transcripts,
    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 >
    Enjoy Life Forever! Book Links (tiandi.info/lff)

Videos are used extensively in the Enjoy Life Forever! book, and a noteworthy feature of the above resource is Pīnyīn Plus video transcripts. These should help us Mandarin field language learners to analyze and understand the Mandarin speech used in the many videos referenced in the Mandarin Enjoy Life Forever! book. This in turn should help us make more effective use of these videos while participating in Mandarin Bible discussions using this book.


Also, using the Pīnyīn Plus video transcripts while watching and listening to the corresponding Mandarin videos gives us good practice at listening to Mandarin speech, with help when needed so that we can actually follow along and understand it, and learn to use it ourselves in the future.


lff Lesson 1 - Video Transcripts - Enjoy Life Forever! Bk. (Pīnyīn Plus, Web)


(Tapping/clicking on the above image will take you to the web page represented.)


In the above resource, material matching both the current 2021-09 Printing of the Mandarin Enjoy Life Forever! book and the current 2021 Study Edition (nwtsty) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:

Fully Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material:

  • Front Cover to the end of Lesson 02

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus Material:

  • Lesson 03;
  • Lesson 04, up to Point 3, Par. 1

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 Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus web material based on the Mandarin Enjoy Life Forever! book 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.)


Monday, February 21, 2022

MEotW: hùdòng

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

In the title of the Mandarin Enjoy Life Forever! book, what does “hùdòng” mean? How does it apply to the Enjoy Life Forever! book?


_Enjoy Life Forever!_ bk. title page (jw.org CHS+Pinyin)


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


A news feed for this blog is available here.


Monday, February 14, 2022

Monday, February 07, 2022

MEotW: kǒuzhào

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

What is the Chinese connection with regard to using masks to combat the spread of disease?


electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
An electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
Creative Commons Attribution License logo NIAID


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


A news feed for this blog is available here.