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Introduction and Disclaimer

Sidney Lau Romanization, With English Ruby Text ˄

This material contains text from the Chinese Imitate book, written in Sidney Lau romanization. It also includes English ruby text that has been bundled with the Sidney Lau romanization text that it shows the meaning of. Thus, while making better use of limited display real estate on mobile devices and requiring less paper to print out compared to corresponding 3-line material, this material provides us Cantonese-learners with assistance in the two language aspects we require in order to be able to discuss or study the Imitate book with someone in Cantonese:

  1. The pronunciations of the Cantonese words used
    • These show us how to communicate the Imitate book’s message in Cantonese.
  2. The meanings of the Cantonese words used
    • These show us what is being communicated in Cantonese.

Advantages of the Web Format ˄

This Sidney Lau-English material is in web format. It takes up less space than, and is less complex than, corresponding 3-line (Chinese characters-Sidney Lau-English) material.

Being in web format allows this material to benefit from the advantages of this format, including:

Sidney Lau Romanization is a Good, Workable Writing System On Its Own ˄

Reading just Sidney Lau romanization may take some getting used to if you’re accustomed to reading (or trying to read) Chinese characters, but going by first principles of linguistics (the scientific study of language) rather than mere human traditions, it should be more than worth the effort. You should at least give yourself a chance to get used to it.

“One of the basic assumptions of modern linguistics [the scientific study of language]…is that speech is primary and writing is secondary”. Yes, speech is the foundation on which writing must be built, not vice versa. (That’s just a natural result of the way Jehovah made us—he gave our bodies the built-in ability to produce speech, but writing requires external aids such as pens and paper, keyboards and screens, etc.) Thus, it is very good that Sidney Lau romanization represents Cantonese speech so straightforwardly and easily, and that it enables us to focus on speech. Yes, while Chinese characters, as beautiful and traditional as they are, demand distractingly large commitments of precious time and energy just for themselves, Sidney Lau romanization frees and empowers us to focus on communicating the good news.

Indeed, in our ministry specifically, we definitely need to understand speech and to speak understandably much more than we need to read and write. (1 Corinthians 14:8–11) So, while many who have received traditional Cantonese language instruction have been influenced to believe that being able to read and write characters is the ultimate goal for a Cantonese language student to aspire to, actually, for us Kingdom publishers, our ultimate goal regarding Cantonese should be being able to understand and speak spoken Cantonese, so that we can preach and teach the good news effectively, from our hearts, using Cantonese speech. So, really, for us Kingdom publishers, being able to read, understand, and write Sidney Lau romanization, which directly represents Cantonese speech, is a more relevant and important (and easy-to-achieve) goal to aspire to than being able to read, understand, and write characters, which unfortunately have become this thing on their own that has warped and obfuscated Cantonese speech rather than supporting it.

But, is Sidney Lau romanization even really a writing system? Interestingly, the Chinese national standard Zhōngguó Mángwén (中国盲文/中國盲文, Chinese Braille) is basically a transliteration or conversion of Pīnyīn into braille letters. Braille is obviously a writing system, so Pīnyīn must also be a writing system, not just a pronunciation aid. And since Pīnyīn must be a writing system, Sidney Lau romanization must also be a writing system, since it is designed along similar principles.

Additionally, as a Sumerian proverb stated, “a scribe whose hand matches the mouth, he is indeed a scribe”. Sidney Lau romanization can indeed be used to write anything that can be spoken in modern Cantonese, from the simplest expressions to the most advanced, complex, and deeply meaningful expressions, so it qualifies as a full writing system in that fundamental sense as well.

Really, after a bit of research into what the definition of a “writing system” is, it becomes evident that a system like Sidney Lau romanization should naturally be considered a writing system, in spite of the efforts of worldly Chinese intellectuals to artificially and unjustly suppress and denigrate systems like Pīnyīn and Sidney Lau romanization in order to protect and enshrine the traditional Hànzì writing system that they have so much invested in.

Since Sidney Lau romanization is not just a pronunciation aid, but a full writing system, it is not “training wheels”—it’s regular wheels. On the other hand, Chinese characters are like non-round wheels—more difficult than necessary. While some may find non-round wheels “interesting”, or maybe even “beautiful”, much of the time we just need to get from point A to point B as quickly and easily as possible. We may even need to do so to save someone’s life. For example, what kind of wheels should be on an ambulance? That’s the kind of “wheels” we should be using in our life-saving work.

That Sidney Lau romanization is a full writing system for any and all modern Cantonese speech also means that, in addition to it being correct to say that “Sidney Lau romanization is Chinese” because it was developed in Hong Kong by a Chinese person, it is also quite correct to say that “Sidney Lau romanization is Chinese” in the sense that, even if it isn’t Chinese characters, it is indeed written Cantonese Chinese—it’s not as if Sidney Lau romanization were written English or French or something!

But, aren’t characters more meaningful than Sidney Lau romanization? There are certainly meanings and stories behind how certain characters are written, but taken as a bewitchingly complex, independent system for directly representing meanings visually, the characters can actually be a distraction or a diversion from the Cantonese words themselves, which are already a system of representing meanings through Cantonese speech sounds. Really, a Cantonese word still means what it means, no more and no less, whether it is spoken, written in characters, or written in Sidney Lau romanization. Shakespeare said that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, and indeed, a rose would smell as sweet whether the spoken Cantonese word for it is written as “玫瑰” or as “mooi⁴-gwai³”. Writing the word in characters does not add to its meaning, and writing it in Sidney Lau romanization does not take away from its meaning.

Practically speaking, we should keep in mind that, as many in the Cantonese field have found, by investing the minimal amount of time and effort needed to learn and get used to the Sidney Lau romanization system, we will be equipped to always be able to quickly and easily read anything in Cantonese that’s written in Sidney Lau romanization, and we will always be able to quickly and easily write anything in Cantonese using Sidney Lau romanization. In contrast, even those who are fairly familiar with Chinese characters will at times come across unfamiliar or forgotten characters whose meanings and pronunciations they can only guess at. Also, even those who are fairly familiar with Chinese characters will at times be completely unable to remember or figure out how to write a certain character.

But, does using Sidney Lau romanization mean that we are failing to show proper respect for Chinese culture? Since, as mentioned above, the Sidney Lau romanization system was developed in Hong Kong by a Chinese person, it is a product of Chinese culture, and it is a part of Chinese culture. So, using Sidney Lau romanization is not an imposition of Western culture—it is an application of Chinese culture! While Sidney Lau romanization uses the Latin alphabet, it does so because the Chinese developer of Sidney Lau romanization of his own free will purposely chose to base it on this international alphabet (it’s not just the English alphabet) so that users of Sidney Lau romanization would benefit from its familiarity. This Chinese design decision, like the decision to use the Latin alphabet for Pīnyīn, has caused the international Latin alphabet to be adopted as part of Chinese culture. As Zhōu Ēnlái (the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China) said, ‘When we adopt the Latin alphabet, in which we make necessary adjustments to suit the needs of the Chinese language, it becomes the phonetic alphabet of our language and is no longer the alphabet of ancient Latin, still less the alphabet of any foreign country.’

While those who love traditional Chinese culture may dislike such a radical innovation, it can be said that such innovations are actually a sign of positive, healthy cultural development. Another example of such a radical but positive innovation was the West and China moving from always using Roman numerals and the Chinese characters for numbers to mostly using Arabic numerals. I’m sure most would agree that it’s a very good thing that we no longer have to deal with CMXXXVI÷III or 九百三十六÷三, because we can just work out 936÷3! Sidney Lau romanization brings similar benefits as a writing system for Cantonese.

Anyway, the merely human cultures and traditions of this world that is passing away should not be the most important things to us Witnesses of Jehovah. (Mark 7:13; 1 John 2:17) The most important thing for us to consider is the truth about what really works best for our God-given work of sanctifying Jehovah’s name, preaching the good news of the Kingdom, and helping to save the lives of those who respond positively to that good news.—John 4:24; Matthew 6:9; 24:14; 1 Timothy 2:3, 4.

The truth is that, based on first principles of language science that help us to understand how Jehovah actually designed us humans to learn and use language, Sidney Lau romanization is a good, workable writing system on its own for modern Cantonese. Not only that, but the experiences of many in the Cantonese field also provide living proof that Sidney Lau romanization works much more quickly, easily, and effectively than Chinese characters do for helping publishers who are learning Cantonese to become effective preachers and teachers in the Cantonese field.

For a more in-depth discussion about how we in the Chinese field should view Pīnyīn, and in principle, other phonographic writing systems such as Sidney Lau romanization, see the article Pīnyīn Was Plan A”. Here is a quote from it:

“That there are so many different words in modern Mandarin that sound the same is not a good reason not to use Pīnyīn, any more than it is a good reason not to speak Mandarin.”

(The login information required is the same as for anywhere else on 3lines.org. If you’re already on the 3lines.org site, you can find this article in the folder Misc ▶ Articles.)

Disclaimer ˄

This is not a publication of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, and if an Imitate book is available, this material should be used along with it, not instead of it. This material is only meant to help publishers working in the Cantonese field, so that they can more quickly become more effective at preaching and teaching the good news to Cantonese-speaking people without being unnecessarily obstructed and delayed by the complex and difficult-to-learn-and-remember Chinese characters.

IMPORTANT: Please do not use this material as an excuse or as a crutch to just “get by” or “muddle through” at Cantonese meetings or Bible discussions. By all means, make good use of this material in such settings, but most importantly, use this material to help you really improve your knowledge and understanding of the Cantonese language, so that you can 1) listen with more understanding and 2) speak more effectively from your heart while praising Jehovah and preaching and teaching the good news in the Cantonese field.

Translation and Proofreading ˄

The English translation follows these principles:

This approach to translating can sometimes result in English translations that don’t follow traditional English usage patterns. However, the purpose of the material is not necessarily to move the hearts of English-speaking publishers through the use of their mother tongue. Rather, the purpose of the material is to help publishers to understand and speak Cantonese better, so that they can ultimately better move the hearts of Cantonese-speaking Bible students through the use of their mother tongue.

While some 3-line, etc. material has been released by others without having been proofread (which does have the benefit of allowing the material to be released more quickly), this Imitate book material has been carefully translated and proofread. Thus, those who are learning Cantonese can reliably use it to help increase their insight into the meanings of Cantonese expressions, as well as their insight into how these expressions are used in various contexts. Of course, the material may still contain errors. If you find any, please email me to let me know.

Offline Viewing and Printing ˄

This web resource is divided into different files and folders, which all reside inside a master folder. This master folder has been “zipped” into the zip file linked to below, which can be saved or downloaded and unzipped for offline use:

Imitate Bk. (SL-English, Scriptures, Web).zip

To download and unzip this file on an iPad or an iPhone/iPod touch using GoodReader 4:

To download and unzip this file on a PC or a Mac:

This web resource’s content can also be printed out from your web browser. On a PC or a Mac, the web browsers I recommend for printing from are Safari, Chrome, and Opera. (See the Recommended Browsers: section for download links.) To include page numbers on the printouts, be sure to select the option to print headers and footers.

Updates and Other Information ˄

Check the Links News blog (news feed, Twitter) for news regarding updates to this resource, and also for news regarding other resources prepared by our fellow workers in the Chinese field. You may also find it interesting to check out the tiandi.info blog (news feed, Twitter), which is about various things related to the Chinese field. (If you need login information for the parts of tiandi.info that require it, request it by email, and include information on who referred you and/or what group/cong. you are in.)

To follow the Twitter account for the Links News and tiandi.info blogs, click or tap this button:

If you have any questions or comments, e-mail them to waynerj@shaw.ca.

Enjoy using the material. May it help you to serve more effectively and joyfully in the Cantonese field.


Ging¹·man⁴ (scripture · writings) woh⁴ (and) Geuk³·jue³ (foot·notes)

1 Corinthians 14:8–11

8 For if the trumpet sounds an indistinct call, who will get ready for battle? 9 In the same way, unless you with the tongue use speech that is easily understood, how will anyone know what is being said? You will, in fact, be speaking into the air. 10 It may be that there are many kinds of speech in the world, and yet no kind is without meaning. 11 For if I do not understand the sense of the speech, I will be a foreigner to the one speaking, and the one speaking will be a foreigner to me. ˄

Mark 7:13

Thus you make the word of God invalid by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.” ˄

1 John 2:17

Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains forever. ˄

John 4:24

God is a Spirit, and those worshipping him must worship with spirit and truth.” ˄

Matthew 6:9

“You must pray, then, this way:

“ ‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. ˄

Matthew 24:14

And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. ˄

1 Timothy 2:3, 4

3 This is fine and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, God, 4 whose will is that all sorts of people should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth. ˄