The Real Purpose of 3-Line, Pīnyīn Plus, etc. Material

The purpose of 3-line, _Pīnyīn_ Plus, etc. material was never to “go beyond the things that are written”. Rather, it has always been to help Chinese field language learners use “the things that are written” in Chinese characters, those overly complex products of human tradition.

— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) November 10, 2022

Of course, the organization should produce material in Chinese characters, for those who grew up learning and using them.

For Chinese field language learners though, the extraordinarily complex characters are a burden and a distraction—they need to focus first on SPEECH.

— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) November 10, 2022

Of course, it’s good to eventually learn as many Chinese characters as reasonably possible.

However, SPEECH is the primary aspect of language. A good foundational understanding of Mandarin, etc. SPEECH will enable one to go on to better learn Chinese characters as time allows.

— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) November 10, 2022

E.g., in Mandarin-English 3-line, _Pīnyīn_ Plus, etc. material, the _Pīnyīn_ simply represents the Mandarin speech itself, and the English helps language learners to build understanding of the Mandarin speech, which makes them useful & better equipped to later learn characters.

— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) November 10, 2022