The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:
Is anger an appropriate reaction to the suggestion to focus less on characters and more on Pīnyīn?
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From today's daily text: "Let your reasonableness become known to all men. —Phil. 4:5." Chinese characters are too numerous, complex, and haphazardly designed to be memorized by us imperfect humans. _Pīnyīn_ has a reasonable number of consistent, easily-remembered symbols.
— tiandi, Links News (@tiandilinksnews.bsky.social) April 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
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From today's daily text: "At times, it must have taken real courage for a Nazirite to stick to his vow and stand out as different." With the Chinese world's chauvinistic prejudice against _Pīnyīn_, it can take courage to keep using it. Keep doing what helps you serve Jehovah better.
— tiandi, Links News (@tiandilinksnews.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 10:19 AM
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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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Similarly, the Pharisees opposed Jesus. They couldn’t handle the truth because the truth threatened their status, which was what they cared about most. https://t.co/funMK1Nzw7
— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) April 24, 2024
As Jehovah’s dedicated people in a Chinese language field, our first priority should always be to serve Jehovah in the best way possible. We should not just be faithful adherents of the human cultural traditions of the Chinese world.
— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) February 6, 2024
Let us be Christians, not Chinese Pharisees! pic.twitter.com/sHv7QzbYJM
Today’s daily text reminds us that Jehovah’s true worshippers worship with TRUTH. Us Chinese fields language learners need to keep in mind that many people have been led to believe things about the Chinese languages, Chinese characters, etc. that are actually not true. Beware!
— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) March 17, 2023
Some untrue things about Chinese languages, characters, etc.:
— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) March 17, 2023
“Mandarin, Cantonese, etc. are just dialects.”
(Actually, they are separate languages.)
“Characters are primary.”
(SPEECH is primary.)
“_Pīnyīn_ is just a pronunciation aid.”
(_Pīnyīn_ is a full writing system.)
…
Why do so many people believe, and even promote, so many untruths about Chinese languages, characters, etc.? There are several generally bad reasons:
— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) March 17, 2023
* Tradition/inertia/apathy
* Pride
* Valuing political, social, etc. power, prestige, etc. over truth
* Sunk cost fallacy
* …
