[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 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 161, which are available in the Mandarin 2025 Nián 3 Yuè Printing of the current songbook.
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 material for all the songs for Mandarin 2025 conventions, in the forms of 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 (including much proofread musical notation 🎼 with Pīnyīn lyrics), have been posted to this resource that seeks to help with the above-mentioned challenges:
- “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
(Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
(rich information about the Mandarin speech
used for Kingdom songs,
as represented by the text of the
Mandarin “Sing Out Joyfully” book,
2020-08 / 2024-03 / 2024-10 / 2025-03 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
links for getting around,
song links sorted by number;
Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
easy-to-read font,
guitar chords included;
Pīnyīn Plus: “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”),
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
song, verse, etc.,
Dark mode selectable with the
dropdown control at the top right,
adjustable text size)
(Info re offline viewing and printing)
- Short Links:
Links > Publications > Books >
“Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)
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:
- Partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or better is available for all the songs in the “Sing Out Joyfully” (sjj) songbook.
- Mandarin 2024–2025 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics or better and proofread musical notation 🎼 with Pīnyīn lyrics are available for all the songs scheduled.
- Mandarin 2025 conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics or better are available for all the songs scheduled. Proofread Pīnyīn Plus lyrics and proofread musical notation 🎼 with Pīnyīn lyrics are available for the 2025 convention song “To Do Your Will Is My Delight”.
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:
- Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as is practical.
- In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
- The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and dark mode is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.
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.]
