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shèjiāo wǎngzhàn

shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stand → [station]} → [website] 网站 網站) → [social networking website; social network]) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”; tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”. 📖 📄 📘 icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and 📘 Reveal None re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

At the time of this writing, jw.org had recently featured a video that was introduced with the following words, which included this week’s MEotW, “shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stand → [station]} → [website] 网站 網站) → [social networking website; social network])”, in the Mandarin text:

English:

Be Social-Network Smart

Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of social networking.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Zài (On 在) Shèjiāo Wǎngzhàn ((Shè·jiāo {God of the Land → [Society] → [Social]} · {Meeting → [Associating]} → [Social Contact/Interaction] 社交) (Wǎng·zhàn {Net → [Web]} · {Stands → [Stations]} → [Websites] 网站 網站) → [Social Networks]) Zuò (Be 做) ge ([mw] 个 個/个) Cōngming (Cōng·ming Intelligent · {Bright → [Understanding]} 聪明 聰明) Rén (Person 人)

📖 📄 📘 Lái (come 来 來) kànkan (kàn·kan see · see 看看) zěnyàng (zěn·yàng what · {pattern → [way]} → [how] 怎样 怎樣) cái ({only then} 才 才/纔) néng ({to be able} 能) bìmiǎn ({to avoid} 避免) diàojìn (diào·jìn falling · {to go into} 掉进 掉進) shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stands → [stations]} → [websites] 网站 網站) → [social networks]) de (’ 的) xiànjǐng (xiàn·jǐng {to be fallen into} · pitfalls 陷阱).

In the above excerpts from jw.org, “shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stand → [station]} → [website] 网站 網站) → [social networking website; social network])” means “social networks”. A quick search on the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY reveals that the organization has been using “shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stand → [station]} → [website] 网站 網站) → [social networking website; social network])” to translate “social networking sites”, “social networking”, etc. since at least about 2007, not long after the launch in 2004 of the huge, well-known social network Facebook.

Websites and Native Apps

While on one level of literalness “shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stand → [station]} → [website] 网站 網站) → [social networking website; social network])” means “social website” or “social networking website”, and while technically social networks can often also be accessed using native apps, social networks often start out using websites, and these websites generally continue to be major ways to access these social networks after native apps for them become available. The important thing is that undoubtedly people who know Mandarin will generally understand that you are referring to a social network when you use “shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stand → [station]} → [website] 网站 網站) → [social networking website; social network])”.

Websites on the World Wide Web can be accessed using web browsers, in which these websites basically work the same on different computing devices like Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop and laptop computers, iPhones and iPads, Android devices, etc. (In this old world’s technological Babel, it’s not always quite that simple, as an example discussed below illustrates, but perhaps amazingly, this is true now to a large extent.) Thus, a website can often be a single development target that provides at least the same basic functionality on many different computing platforms.

An app that is native to Windows/Mac/iPhone/Android/etc. can take advantage of the full performance of, as well as specific features of, the specific platform it is native to, and thus can be noticeably faster, nicer, etc. than a website designed for the lowest common denominator middleman that is the web environment. However, for a social network, developing a native app for each of several computing platforms is generally comparatively difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Thus, social networks often start out by providing a website for people to use, and then they may or may not go on to develop native apps for particular computing platforms like the iPhone, Android, etc.

Alternate and Related Expressions

An alternate Mandarin term used to translate “social network”, which more literally matches its meaning, is “shèjiāo wǎngluò ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·luò net · enmeshing → [network (computing, transport, etc.) (PRC)] 网络 網絡) → [(online) social network])”. A search on the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY shows that the organization has also been using this term since at least 2007. Note that the organization has sometimes preceded this term with “zàixiàn (zài·xiàn on·line 在线 在線)”, which means “online”. This distinguishes online social networks from the more abstract social networks (which may or may not be online) studied in the social and behavioural sciences. (By the way, “wǎngluò (wǎng·luò net · enmeshing → [network (computing, transport, etc.) (PRC)] 网络 網絡)” is a PRC (People’s Republic of China) term. The corresponding term used in Taiwan is “wǎnglù (wǎng·lù net · road; path; way; route → [network (computing, transport, etc.) (Tw)] 网路 網路)”.)

An expression that is related to “shèjiāo wǎngzhàn ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·zhàn {net → [web]} · {stand → [station]} → [website] 网站 網站) → [social networking website; social network])” and “shèjiāo wǎngluò ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng·luò net · enmeshing → [network (computing, transport, etc.) (PRC)] 网络 網絡) → [(online) social network])”, and that some may use as an abbreviation for one or both of them, is “shèjiāo wǎng ((shè·jiāo {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {meeting → [associating]} → [social contact/interaction] 社交) (wǎng net → [network] → [Web; Internet] 网 網) → [social media; abbr. for shèjiāo wǎngluò/wǎngzhàn (social networks/social networking websites)])”.

“Shèhuì wǎngluò ((Shè·huì {god of the land → [society] → [social]} · {gathering → [society] → [social]} → [social] 社会 社會) (wǎng·luò net · enmeshing → [network (computing, transport, etc.) (PRC)] 网络 網絡) → [social network (abstract concept)])” is an expression that evidently refers to the more conceptual social networks mentioned above, that are studied in the social and behavioural sciences. A similar expression is “guānxi wǎng ((guān·xi {closing [with] → [involving]} · {tying → [relating]} → [relationship] 使徒) (wǎng net → [network] 网 網/网) → [Internet and/or real-life social network, relationship network, network of friends/connections])”.

Browser Babel and Subtitles

As a side note, while researching this post, I discovered that the Referenced Theo. Expressions (RTE)’s bookmarklet (tap/click on the “Show bookmarklets” link) for adding unproofread, computer-generated Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) to a web page with Chinese characters will also add such Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) to the subtitles of the Mandarin videos on jw.org (the ones I was able to try, at least), if one is using one of the following web browsers on a Mac, or presumably, on a PC or an Android device:

  • Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Presumably, other browsers that, like MS Edge, use the Blink browser engine, such as Google Chrome, Opera, etc.

Screenshot of a Mandarin video on jw.org, in Firefox, after processing by the RTE _Pīnyīn_ bookmarklet, with an arrow pointing out the _Pīnyīn_ added to the subtitles

Unfortunately, at this time, this does not work on Safari browsers, whether on a Mac or on an iPad or iPhone. In those web browsers, the Chinese characters of the video subtitles remain unadorned by added Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) when the bookmarklet does its thing. While this is a case of Apple’s Safari web browsers allowing for less functionality compared to other browsers, the underlying reason for this may be related to Apple’s relatively high prioritization of user privacy and security, which benefits users in other ways.

Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus video transcripts can potentially provide more and better-proofread information (and are usable in all major modern browsers, including Safari), but when such material is not available for a particular Mandarin video, for many the above option is much better than having to deal with raw characters. Also, there may be some benefit in seeing even unproofread Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) displayed right in the video picture as one is watching a Mandarin video.

Categories
Culture Language Learning Technology Theocratic

Yēsū Xīshēng Jìniàn Jùhuì

Yēsū (Jesus’ 耶稣 耶穌)
Xīshēng (Xī·shēng {Sacrifice (n)} · {(as with a) Domestic Animal} → [Sacrifice] 牺牲 犧牲)
Jìniàn Jùhuì ((Jì·niàn Remembering · {Thinking Of} → [Commemorating] 记/纪念 記/紀念) (Jùhuì Meeting 聚会 聚會) → [Memorial]) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

This year’s Memorial is scheduled for this week, so this week’s MEotW is “Yēsū (Jesus’ 耶稣 耶穌) Xīshēng (Xī·shēng {Sacrifice (n)} · {(as with a) Domestic Animal} → [Sacrifice] 牺牲 犧牲) Jìniàn Jùhuì ((Jì·niàn Remembering · {Thinking Of} → [Commemorating] 记/纪念 記/紀念) (Jùhuì Meeting 聚会 聚會) → [Memorial])”. This is currently the official way to translate “the Memorial of Jesus’ death” into Mandarin, as can be seen by comparing the English and Mandarin pages for the Memorial on jw.org.

It’s worth noting that this is a simple, straightforward, functional translation, free of unnecessary sentimentality or ceremony. As one dictionary puts it, “ceremony”, in this case, refers to:

The formalities observed on some solemn or important public or state occasion in order to render it more imposing or impressive: as, the ceremony of crowning a king, or of laying a foundation-stone; the ceremony of inaugurating the President of the United States.

Indeed, for those of us who appreciate Jesus’ ransom sacrifice, the Memorial is about this appreciation, not about ceremony or empty or showy rituals.

What Price Ceremony?

The matter of unnecessary ceremony reminds me of something I heard in a podcast a while ago:

Here is a clip of the podcast referred to in the tweet above, in which Mr. Cohen speaks of the core goal to make Swift ceremony-free:

As the above tweet also mentions, Chinese characters have oodles and gobs of unnecessary, time-and-energy-consuming ceremony, especially compared to the simple, straightforward, and elegant Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) writing system. And, echoing Mr. Cohen’s observation that ceremony can weigh programmers down and rob them of the joy that they could otherwise feel when coding, many have found that the unnecessary, traditionally mandated complexity and ceremonial baggage of Chinese characters can weigh down Mandarin learners and take away much of the joy that they should be able to feel from learning how to really communicate with Mandarin-speaking people.

Is it appropriate for us to look at the Chinese characters writing system through the same lens that we use to look at a technological system like the Swift programming language? It really is, because while the Chinese characters writing system is indeed a matter of culture, all writing systems are simultaneously technologies, applications of skills and knowledge for practical purposes.

Categories
Culture Language Learning Technology Theocratic

zuìchū

zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} [→ [initial[ly]; prime; [at] first; original[ly]]] 最初) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: “PyP” is short for “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus”. Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”, tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”. 📖 📄 📘 icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and 📘 Reveal None re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

“Zuìchū (Zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} [→ [initial[ly]; prime; [at] first; original[ly]]] 最初)” is the very first expression that occurs in the current Mandarin New World Translation Bible, at Genesis 1:1 (WOL; PyP):

📖 📄 📘 Zuìchū (Zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} 最初), Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝) chuàngzàole (chuàng·zào·le {initiated · made, created → [created]} · [indicates a change] 创造了 創造了) tiāndì (tiān·dì heavens · earth 天地).

At Revelation 2:4 (WOL; PyP), the current Mandarin NWT Bible also uses “zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} [→ [initial[ly]; prime; [at] first; original[ly]]] 最初)” when it talks about not leaving “the love you had at first”:

📖 📄 📘 Búguò (Bú·guò not · {do pass} → [however] 不过 不過), yǒu ({(there) is having} 有) yì (one 一) diǎn (point (regarding which) 点 點) wǒ (I 我) yào (must 要) zébèi (zé·bèi reprove · prepare → [reprove] 责备 責備) nǐ (you 你), jiùshì (jiù·shì (which) exactly · is 就是) nǐ (you 你) ràng ({have allowed} 让 讓) zìjǐ (selves’ 自己) zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} → [at first] 最初) de (’s 的) nèi (that 那) fèn ({portion of} 份) ài (love 爱 愛) lěngdàn (lěng·dàn {to be(come) cold} · {to be(come) bland → [to be(come) indifferent]} 冷淡) xialai (xia·lai down · {to come} 下来 下來).

“Original Intention”? “Beginner’s Mind”?

While “zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} [→ [initial[ly]; prime; [at] first; original[ly]]] 最初)” appears multiple times in the current Mandarin NWT Bible, the expression “chūxīn (chū·xīn beginning; original; initial; {first (in order)} · heart; mind → [original desire/aspiration/intention | (Zen Buddhism) beginner’s mind (attitude of openness, free of preconceptions, when studying a subject)] 初心)”, which may seem somewhat related, does not appear in the current Mandarin NWT Bible.

In normal Mandarin usage, “chūxīn (chū·xīn beginning; original; initial; {first (in order)} · heart; mind → [original desire/aspiration/intention] 初心)” effectively means “original desire/aspiration/intention”. We should be aware, though, that the expression “chūxīn (chū·xīn beginning; original; initial; {first (in order)} · heart; mind → [original desire/aspiration/intention | (Zen Buddhism) beginner’s mind (attitude of openness, free of preconceptions, when studying a subject)] 初心)” (shoshin in Japanese) is also used in Zen Buddhism to mean “beginner’s mind”, an attitude of openness, free of preconceptions, when studying a subject.

While “chūxīn (chū·xīn beginning; original; initial; {first (in order)} · heart; mind → [(Zen Buddhism) beginner’s mind (attitude of openness, free of preconceptions, when studying a subject)] 初心)”, as used in Zen Buddhism, apparently refers to one’s own unprejudiced mental approach to learning about a reality, “zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} [→ [initial[ly]; prime; [at] first; original[ly]]] 最初)”, as used in the Bible, refers to the very beginning of a reality itself, prior to any possible subsequent deviation or corruption. It seems that following the Bible’s example of focusing on the truth of the original reality of something naturally produces the beneficial openness and freedom from preconceptions referred to by the Zen Buddhist usage of “chūxīn (chū·xīn beginning; original; initial; {first (in order)} · heart; mind → [(Zen Buddhism) beginner’s mind (attitude of openness, free of preconceptions, when studying a subject)] 初心)”, especially when we do so with the courage and humility that the Bible often encourages us to cultivate.—2 Timothy 1:7; Joshua 1:9; Proverbs 18:12; 22:4.

Remembering where Zen Buddhism came from and where the Bible came from can help us to understand the difference between the Zen Buddhist concept of chūxīn (chū·xīn beginning; original; initial; {first (in order)} · heart; mind → [(Zen Buddhism) beginner’s mind (attitude of openness, free of preconceptions, when studying a subject)] 初心) and the concept of zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} [→ [initial[ly]; prime; [at] first; original[ly]]] 最初) that is often mentioned in the Bible. Having come from imperfect, limited humans, the Zen Buddhist concept of chūxīn (chū·xīn beginning; original; initial; {first (in order)} · heart; mind → [(Zen Buddhism) beginner’s mind (attitude of openness, free of preconceptions, when studying a subject)] 初心) is unsurprisingly about how an imperfect, limited human can view something—that’s ultimately all it can really be about anyway. On the other hand, the Bible shares with us God’s views of things, and God was actually there at the zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} 最初) time of literally everything in the universe. Also, he has seen how everything has developed since that zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} 最初) time, and he can also perfectly foresee how everything will turn out in the future.

Holding On to Mandarin Field First Love

How might someone leave ‘the love he had at first’ in the Mandarin field? A publisher may have originally entered the Mandarin field with pure motivations, out of love for God and neighbour. Over time, though, with repeated exposure to proud worldly Chinese traditional culture, might some self-glorifying pride creep in regarding knowledge of that worldly Chinese culture, and regarding having gone far down the rabbit hole of the notoriously complex Chinese characters? If so, then the original love that had motivated that publisher may eventually get corrupted, and perhaps even left behind, leaving pride as his main motivation. May we never let that happen to us!

First Things First in Language Learning

The way God made us, zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} 最初), language-wise, there was speech. Only later did imperfect humans eventually come up with some writing systems to visually represent and record some forms of speech. Indeed, there have been, and there still are, many speech-only languages, with no corresponding writing system. Ethnologue, a resource on world languages, says:

Ethnologue (24th edition) has data to indicate that of the currently listed 7,139 living languages, 4,065 have a developed writing system. We don’t always know, however, if the existing writing systems are widely used. That is, while an alphabet may exist there may not be very many people who are literate and actually using the alphabet. The remaining 3,074 are likely unwritten.

Technological First Priority

Writing systems are technologies. About writing, linguist Gretchen McCulloch says:

It really is a technology. It’s a thing you do on top of language to do stuff with language, but it’s not the language itself. There are thousands and possibly millions of languages that have never been written down in the history of humanity. We have no idea. We’ve never met a society of humans, or heard of a society of humans, without language. But those are spoken and signed languages, which are just kind of there. Writing, by contrast, was invented somewhere between 3 and 4 times in the history of humanity.

As with any technology, under-engineering and over-engineering in writing systems are by definition bad. Chinese characters are obviously over-engineered—full of “ceremony”, way more complicated than necessary to fulfil their original purpose of representing Chinese speech. In fact, in the minds of many, Chinese characters have culturally become a thing on their own, the most important thing about Chinese languages, even. Thus, characters have been allowed to improperly overshadow Mandarin, etc. speech, which is actually of primary importance. As the English saying goes, that’s putting the cart before the horse.

Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is sometimes ridiculed for being just for beginners, but the simplicity and elegance with which it fulfils its zuìchū (zuì·chū most · {at the beginning} → [original] 最初), original purpose of representing Mandarin speech are actually very good things. As Leonardo da Vinci is alleged to have said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.