The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How are some people in the Mandarin field’s territory like “sheep without a shepherd”?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
What connection is there between the Mandarin expressions for “birth date” and “Japan”?
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Lately, for various reasons, the Bluesky social network has been getting a lot of attention, and significant numbers of people have been joining it. Now, this Links News blog and related blogs have an official account there as well, with the name tiandilinksnews.bsky.social. (There is now also a web link for it on the sidebar on the right side of this blog, under CHINESE FIELDS LINKS.) If you’re on Bluesky, check it out and give me a follow!
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
For many Mandarin-speaking people, why is going through the Learn From the Bible book a journey of discovery?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
In the Mandarin field, how can we avoid being inferior B players or unserious tourists?
China relegating _Pīnyīn_ to being just a pronunciation aid for characters is like a company hiring a talented A player executive and then making that person just get coffee for the CEO, because the established power base’s top priority is to preserve itself—B players in action. https://t.co/fNHsBWEsWO
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) May 15, 2024
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How is being one of Jehovah’s valiant soldiers better than training for physical warfare for a human worldly nation?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How can we help Mandarin-speaking people to more deeply appreciate just how complex our bodies’ cells are?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
What is one perhaps surprising way in which we can describe in Mandarin the intense anger some feel regarding false religion’s involvement in war?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Why might it be that the Mandarin word for “leader” on a certain level of literalness means “collar sleeves”?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
What can help us face the challenge of actually talking with people in Mandarin about the evidence that life was created?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How can we Mandarin field language learners make good use of our precious, limited available time in the Mandarin field?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How is the Mandarin expression meaning “Governing Body” constructed? Is it a problem that one of the words in it is often used in relation to the government of China?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How can we talk in Mandarin about a war to end all wars?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Might Chinese characters present a test for Mandarin field language learners? If so, what might they test?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How does the Mandarin expression “_miǎománg_” illustrate how remote the possibility is that life originated by chance?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
What are some Mandarin expressions we can keep in mind when talking to Mandarin-speakers about whom we can trust?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
For us Mandarin field language learners, do all language-learning “roads” lead to the same place?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How is the Mandarin word for “dig” related to the Mandarin expression for “speak sarcastically”?
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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 🎼. Also, it does not contain songs 152 to 158, which were added in the Mandarin 2024 Nián 3 Yuè Printing.
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. (This relegation of Pīnyīn to being ruby text reflects the traditional/orthodox but erroneous and unjust view that Pīnyīn can only be a pronunciation aid, when it really qualifies as and works well as a full writing system.)
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) material that is now available in the JW Library app (iOS/iPadOS; Android; Windows) and on jw.org and the WOL does much to address 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.
Unofficial language-learning materials for all the songs for Mandarin 2024–2025 circuit assemblies, in the forms of proofread musical notation 🎼 with Pīnyīn lyrics and proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or better, 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 📱 running iOS, iPadOS, Android, etc. 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:
How much should we let it bother us that “app” has been borrowed from English into Mandarin, even being written in Latin alphabet letters? Why might it be that it’s pronounced in Mandarin by saying out its letters?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Are Chinese characters the ultimate clarifiers of meaning in Mandarin? Also, what is the correct way to pronounce Mandarin’s “r” sound?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How does the Mandarin NWT Bible’s translation of 1 Corinthians 13:3 emphasize to us how futile it is to do things out of pride and not out of love?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
What could we say to a Mandarin-speaker who insists that evolution is a fact?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How might we in Mandarin bring up the topic of recent political violence?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How can we talk in Mandarin about arguing? Should we use the same language to describe how Jesus spoke with the Pharisees, etc.?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Why should Mandarin field language learners be wary of what the world’s education system teaches people about Chinese characters?
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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.]
The Enjoy Life Forever! (lff) book is currently officially recommended for use on Bible studies, and it is currently 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 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, which matches the 2024-06 Printing now on the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY:
can be used offline in supporting browsers, icon can be added to the home screenVideos 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.
(Tapping/clicking on the above image will take you to the web page represented.)
In the above resource, material matching both the current 2024-06 Printing of the Mandarin Enjoy Life Forever! book and the current 2024 Study Edition (nwtsty) of the Mandarin NWT Bible is now available that covers the following:
(Even in the latter category above, headings and relatively short paragraphs are typically rendered with fully proofread Pīnyīn Plus material.)
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.)
A _Pīnyīn_ calligraphy time-lapse video has been added to the MEotW post on “_Ānnà_”. https://t.co/faHpcNbUEj pic.twitter.com/Hi5Jba5KFX
— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) July 11, 2024
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
While worldly Chinese people consider Chinese calligraphy to be a precious part of their culture, what is precious about China in Jehovah’s eyes?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Why is it appropriate to use this expression in relation to evolution, but not in relation to creation?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How important is talent with music or languages when it comes to learning Mandarin? What else is important for learning Mandarin?
The 2024 convention song “‘Hǎo Xiāoxi’!” (music+Pīnyīn), on an iPhone (landscape orientation)
Chart showing the relative changes in pitch for the four tones of Mandarin Chinese
Wereon
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 🎼. Also, it does not contain songs 152 to 158, which were added in the Mandarin 2024 Nián 3 Yuè Printing.
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. (This relegation of Pīnyīn to being ruby text reflects the traditional/orthodox but erroneous and unjust view that Pīnyīn can only be a pronunciation aid, when it really qualifies as and works well as a full writing system.)
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) material that is now available in the JW Library app (iOS/iPadOS; Android; Windows) and on jw.org and the WOL does much to address 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.
Unofficial language-learning materials for all the songs for Mandarin 2024 conventions, in the forms of proofread musical notation 🎼 with Pīnyīn lyrics and proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or better, 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 📱 running iOS, iPadOS, Android, etc. 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.]
