New Resource: Short Link for the Bearing Witness Book

Next week, we will begin studying the Bearing Witness (bt) book at the Congregation Bible Study. A list of resources related to this book, that may be helpful to Chinese field language learners, is now available at:

• Bearing Witness Book Links (tiandi.info/bt)

Besides listing some great new official resources that are now available, this short link also lists the refreshed and re-uploaded web page for downloading the 3-line XLP-iPhone-A5 LN-A PDF files that had been made for the Bearing Witness book years ago, when it had previously been studied at the CBS. Perhaps some will find the particular features of these files helpful. (It should be noted, though, that the material in these files was based on an older printing of the Mandarin Bearing Witness book.)

New Short Link: Teacher Book Links

A new short link has been created for links related to resources for the Teacher book:

• tiandi.info/lr

(In case it’s not clear, the above link ends with lowercase “LR”, since lr is the organization’s code for the Learn From the Great Teacher book.)

The following short link pages have been updated accordingly:

• tiandi.info/books
• tiandi.info/pubs

Updated Wilmington Mandarin Course Textbook Files Now Available

Updated Wilmington Mandarin course textbook files, dated August 22, 2013, are now available for download from the Mandarin Course from Wilmington page (courses short link: tiandi.info/courses).

Here is a comment from the creator of these files about this update:

“The audio files have not changed. I simply changed some formatting and expanded a couple of pages (for example: The section on "zhidao" and "renshi" was really short. I made it into a full page instead of half a page.)”

Also of note is that in view of the recently released Chinese Insight book omitting the section on p. 328 of the English Insight book that discusses the Chinese character “船 (chuán)”, the paragraph on p. 9 of the Wilmington Mandarin course textbook that previously mentioned “船” has been rewritten to no longer mention this character and the unprovable speculation about it.

New Resource: Good News Brochure Cantonese MP3 Audio Files

Cantonese MP3 audio files for the Good News brochure are now available for download on 3lines.org. The path to them is:

misc ▶ Media ▶ Cantonese Audio ▶
Brochures ▶ Good News from God - fg_CHC

These files should especially be helpful when used along with the unofficial Sidney Lau WOL that recently became available.

Recent Short Links Updates

NEW Short Link:

tiandi.info/qb (QUICKBUILD (QB) Links)

QUICKBUILD (QB) links have also been added to tiandi.info/vocab and tiandi.info/courses.

tiandi.info/courses: Mandarin Course from Budapest and QUICKBUILD (QB) Links links have been added.

tiandi.info/jl: Official audio files info has been added.

tiandi.info/fg: Official audio files info and Cantonese audio files info have been added.

Recreated Resource: Wilmington Mandarin Course Page

The Mandarin Course from Wilmington page (courses short link: tiandi.info/courses), which used to be on www.chinesetools.net, has been recreated on troubadourworks.com/tiandi.

Not only has it been recreated, the following new files are now available on it:

• New PDF textbook files, dated Sept. 28, 2012
• MP3 audio files for Lessons 17 and 18

Work on recreating Chinese field resources at troubadourworks.com/tiandi is continuing, so check back here regularly for updates.

Some Pages That Went Offline Have Been Restored

Some Chinese field resource pages that went offline because of some glitch at shaw.ca have been restored. These pages are:

• Lasting Peace Brochure (Chinese-Pinyin-English, iPad-Letter-A4, LN-A)
• Lasting Peace Brochure (Chinese-Pinyin-English, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A)
• Require Brochure (Chinese + Pinyin + English)
• Folleto Exige (Chino + Pinyin + español)
  
• Basic Theo. Expressions—Portuguese
  
• km Presentations Audio Files

New Resource: QUICKBUILD (QB) Theocratic Phrase Books

An interesting new resource has recently become available: The QUICKBUILD (QB) theocratic phrase books. These files show equivalent phrases or expressions, not just individual words, in various languages, and they are organized by subject. Many languages are supported, including Mandarin.

Note: The listed folders are named according to the language you are starting from. E.g., if your mother tongue is English, it would be best for you to use the files in the ==ENG folder. However, since the files show equivalent phrases in different languages lined up next to each other, any of the files with Chinese content could be used to learn Chinese, although the files that have Chinese as the starting language just use characters with no Pinyin or other romanization. (In the filenames, CHI-py stands for Pinyin, CHI-s stands for Simplified Chinese characters, and CHI-t stands for Traditional Chinese characters.)

The development of the QUICKBUILD files was led by the same person who developed the well-known and well-regarded Mandarin Course from Budapest. (There is a folder at the QUICKBUILD site for Budapest course files as well.)

Translation work is ongoing, with help currently needed in the following languages: Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian, Yoruba, Swahili, and Lingala. If you would like to volunteer to help with the translating of the QB material, please send an email regarding that to budapestcourses@gmail.com.

UPDATE (2013-08-27): A short link is now available for the QUICKBUILD resources:

tiandi.info/qb

Wilmington Course Audio Files Added for Lessons 1 and 2

New MP3 audio files, for Lessons 1 and 2, are now available for download on the Mandarin Course from Wilmington page.

Wilmington Course Audio Files Added for Lessons 11-13

New MP3 audio files, for Lessons 11 to 13, are now available for download on the Mandarin Course from Wilmington page.

Wilmington Course Audio Files Added for Lesson 8

New MP3 audio files, for Lesson 8, are now available for download on the Mandarin Course from Wilmington page.

Wilmington Course Audio Files Added for Lessons 9 and 10

New MP3 audio files, for Lessons 9 and 10, are now available for download on the Mandarin Course from Wilmington page.

Wilmington Course Audio Files Added for Lessons 5-7

New MP3 audio files, for Lessons 5 to 7, are now available for download on the Mandarin Course from Wilmington page.

Wilmington Mandarin Course Page Now Available

The theo. Mandarin course materials that were prepared in Wilmington, Delaware, USA are now available for download on the Mandarin Course from Wilmington page.

The textbook is an updated version of the Philadelphia Mandarin course textbook. The one who created the course made an instructor’s version of the textbook (containing the quiz in lesson 12) and a student’s version (which does not contain the quiz). The page numbers line up between the two versions. The textbook files are in PDF format, with Link Navigation and Annotation support.

Some supporting MP3 audio files are available for download as well.

Thanks go out to those who produced these materials and made them available for other Chinese-learners to benefit from.

Standard Mandarin 2 Released

Standard Mandarin is a computer program created by Br. Joel Hansen that helps people to learn Mandarin pronunciation. The Links file has included a link for Standard Mandarin for a long time, and now a new version, version 2, is available. So, this updated description for Standard Mandarin will appear in the next update to the Links file:

http://www.standardmandarin.dk/

The official home of Standard Mandarin, a Windows / Mac OS X program with audio, visual, and text aids to help with pronunciation. Be sure to fill out the form on the website for requesting a download link, and mention that you learned about the site from this Links file so that you will be emailed a link for a free download.

Note that Standard Mandarin is now at version 2.x.

More information on Standard Mandarin can be found at http://www.standardmandarin.com/. However, make sure you go to http://www.standardmandarin.dk/ to fill out a form to request a link for a free download, mentioning that you learned about the site from the Links file, as mentioned above.

Cantonese Referenced Theo. Expressions Web Lookup Page Created

The Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) Web Lookup page is now online. Rather than containing download links to the RTE data files, it contains a web form that can be used to look up Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) information by English or by Simplified or Traditional Chinese characters. The Cantonese romanization pronunciations in the results are rendered as links that play computer-generated audio for the pronunciations when clicked. For now, Jyutping is the only type of Cantonese romanization in the search results. Sidney Lau romanization may be supported later if there is sufficient demand for it. Thanks go out to the ones who helped to produce this resource.

A link to the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) Web Lookup page has been added to the Links sidebar on the right of this page, and a similar link has been added to the Links page at tiandi.info.

To clarify its relation to the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) Web Lookup page, the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) page has been renamed. It is now called the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) Downloads page.

Related links:

• Referenced Theo. Expressions
  (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) Downloads


• Referenced Theo. Expressions
  (Chinese + Pinyin + English) Web Lookup


• Referenced Theo. Expressions
  (Chinese + Pinyin + English) Downloads

The RTE (Mand.) Web Lookup Page Now Also Supports Searching by Pinyin

The Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Pinyin + English) Web Lookup page now supports searching by pinyin in addition to supporting searching by English or by Chinese characters.

Here are some comments by the one who produces the RTE:

RTE web lookup now supports pinyin entry (without tones or with tone numbers), but the results are still sorted by English for now.

...

I've now hacked it so that an "English" query will also check pinyin, but AFTER the English. So "women" will find "luxury-loving women" first and then all the wo3men words after. The links to other dictionaries still query their "search by English" interfaces though.

A RTE (Mand.) Web Lookup link can be found in the Links sidebar on the right of this page. A similar link can be found on the Links page at tiandi.info.

The RTE (Mand.) Web Lookup Page’s Results Now Include Audio Links

The search results of the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Pinyin + English) Web Lookup page now render the pinyin pronunciations of the results as links which play the audio for the pronunciations when clicked. The audio is computer-generated using technology from Gradint. These audio links have been successfully tested in desktop browsers, as well in Mobile Safari, the default web browser on the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad.

RTE (Mand.) Web Lookup has been added to the Links sidebar on the right of this page. A similar link has been added to the Links page at tiandi.info.

See this post for more information about the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Pinyin + English) Web Lookup page.

NWT Audio Files Page Now Directs Visitors to jw.org

The NWT Audio Files page used to contain links to unofficial audio files of Mandarin NWT content read by computer. However, official human-read Mandarin NWT audio files are now available for download from jw.org, so the NWT Audio Files page now directs users to go there for such files. Also, these instructions are provided on how to access the download links to the Mandarin NWT audio files at jw.org:

1. Click on the Downloads tab on the top left of the page.


2. Under the Audio Recordings heading on the left side, click on the Bible link.


3. In the Language dropdown box in the centre of the page, select Chinese Mandarin/Simplified or Chinese Mandarin/Traditional, depending on your preference. (Simplified or Traditional here refers to the type of Chinese characters used in the text embedded in the audio files for display in programs like iTunes, etc.)


4. In the Bible Book dropdown box, select the Bible book for which you want audio files. Download links for those audio files should then automatically appear below the dropdown boxes.

Computer Literacy

...is the title of a recent post at tiandi.info. Here’s the description from the news feed:

[Computer literacy]…is like learning to ride the “bicycle for our minds”.

That quote is from Steve Jobs, the famous founder and leader of Apple Inc., and the post features video footage of his younger self uttering it. Of course, since it’s at tiandi.info, the post will discuss how learning to ride this “bicycle for our minds” can help us in the Chinese field.

To obtain the login information for tiandi.info, request e-mail notification of news regarding available resources, or if you have any questions or comments, you may e-mail me at waynerj@shaw.ca, providing information such as what group or congregation you’re with, who referred you to this site, etc.