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
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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 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.]
The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
As Mandarin field language learners, why should we focus on Jehovah’s powerful gift of speech, rather than on the human invention of writing? How can we do so?
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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.]
The latest, greatest version of the official Mandarin New World Translation Bible is now the 2024 Mandarin version of the Study Edition (nwtsty).
The existing Pīnyīn Plus web material resources based on the 2001 Edition, 2007 Printing (bi12) and the 2019 Edition, 2020 Printing (nwt) of the Mandarin NWT Bible will continue to be available, but they will not be significantly further developed. Instead, further development re Mandarin NWT Bible Pīnyīn Plus web material will be focused on the below resource that is based on the previous resources. This resource is in the process of being revised to match the latest 2024 Study Edition (nwtsty), with notes on each related page indicating where any material still based on older source material remains:
In the above resource, fully proofread Pīnyīn Plus web material is now available that matches many often-used scriptures in the current 2024 Study Edition (nwtsty) of the Mandarin NWT Bible.
The material in the above resource with a grey background has not yet been fully proofread, and may be based on an older version of the Mandarin NWT Bible. Pīnyīn material in the above resource with a golden-hued background has been proofread to ensure that it is correct Pīnyīn that matches the current version of the Mandarin NWT Bible, but not all of its “flashcards” have been added and proofread.
More existing material will be revised and more new material will be added in the above resource as time allows, e.g., as part of the process of producing Pīnyīn Plus web material for scriptures for other publications.
[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:
Is Jehovah God impressed by one who boasts about having deep knowledge of Chinese characters?
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The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
How might collectivism and zero-sum thinking be connected to the obsessive attachment many have to Chinese characters?
Maybe this is connected to why so many Chinese people seem to think,
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) April 13, 2024
“I suffered with Chinese characters, so you must suffer with them too!”
rather than,
“I want you to use _Pīnyīn_ so you won’t have to suffer with Chinese characters like I did.” https://t.co/rgv337FoFi
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