Friday, July 26, 2024

MEotW: zhèngzhì

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

How might we in Mandarin bring up the topic of recent political violence?


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Saturday, July 20, 2024

MEotW: chǎojià

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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Sunday, July 14, 2024

MEotW: jiàoyù

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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Friday, July 12, 2024

The Enjoy Life Forever! Bk. Pīnyīn Plus Web Resource Now Matches the 2024-06 Official Mandarin Version on the WOL

[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:


  • _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,
    2024-06 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 01 - 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 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:

Fully Proofread Pīnyīn Plus Material:

  • Front Cover to the end of Lesson 03, Point 1

Partially Proofread Pīnyīn/Pīnyīn Plus Material or Better:

  • Lesson 03, Point 2 to Lesson 15, Point 3
  • Lesson 25, up to Point 2;
  • Lesson 39, Point 4;
  • Endnote 1;
  • Get Started Reading the Bible;
  • Track Your Bible Reading

(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.)


Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Pīnyīn Calligraphy Time-Lapse Video for “Ānnà”

Sunday, July 07, 2024

MEotW: shūfǎ

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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