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Culture Language Learning Science Technology Theocratic

cì’ěr

cì’ěr (cì’·ěr {stabs; pricks → [irritates; pierces]} · ear → [grating on the ear; jarring; ear-piercing] 刺耳) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

I have long especially liked 1 Corinthians 13. It contains counsel on what really does and doesn’t matter in life, an extensive description and definition of the most important kind of love, and a sublime discussion about the need to become complete, mature, as a person. As these apply to life in general, so too do they apply to our lives as Mandarin field language learners.

As Mandarin field language learners, it can benefit us greatly to consider what we can learn from 1 Corinthians 13, and along the way, we can also consider some of the Mandarin expressions used in that chapter in the current version of the Mandarin New World Translation Bible (nwtsty).

“Clashing”

This week’s MEotW, “cì’ěr (cì’·ěr {stabs; pricks → [irritates; pierces]} · ear → [grating on the ear; jarring; ear-piercing] 刺耳), occurs in verse 1 (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus) of 1 Corinthians 13:

Screenshot of “cì’ěr” in 1 Co. 13:1 (nwtsty, CHS+_Pīnyīn_ WOL)

(Dark mode for the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY (WOL) website, as shown in the above image, can be enabled in the Safari web browser by using the Noir Safari extension.)

“Cì’ěr (Cì’·ěr {stabs; pricks → [irritates; pierces]} · ear → [grating on the ear; jarring; ear-piercing] 刺耳) literally means “stabs ear”, and is used in the Mandarin New World Translation Bible’s rendering of 1 Corinthians 13:1 to translate the “clashing” in “clashing cymbal”. In this context, “cì’ěr (cì’·ěr {stabs; pricks → [irritates; pierces]} · ear → [grating on the ear; jarring; ear-piercing] 刺耳) effectively means “grating on the ear; jarring; ear-piercing”.

Mandarin Field Need-Greater? Or Ear-Grater 😬?

First, let me establish that of course Jehovah and we who are in the Mandarin field deeply appreciate those who have been moved by love to come and try to learn Mandarin and help out in the Mandarin field. Given that, sometimes things do happen that can literally and figuratively grate on the ears of those who truly serve in this field out of love, and who have become acquainted with what good Mandarin sounds like.

The Tone Beast…

One time, a brother I know whose mother tongue is English gave a Mandarin talk during which so many of his tones were off that at times I was genuinely having trouble making out what words he was saying, even when I was listening closely. After that meeting, when I tried to kindly advise him that this was the case, he jokingly quipped something like ‘Well, at least I made you listen closely!’

Maybe this brother really did try his best, and maybe his reply was just an attempt to lighten the mood with some humour. He may also have felt safe using some humour because we know each other and generally get along fairly well. However, his words in this case might also be taken to show that he took his responsibility to give a good Mandarin talk a bit lightly. If so, things said with such a flippant attitude could grate on the ears of someone who views with appropriate seriousness the God-honouring and life-saving work that needs to be done in the Mandarin field.

It is true that especially for those whose mother tongue is, say, English, the tones can be one of the most difficult aspects of Mandarin for them to master, since that way of using pitch (how high or low a “note” is) is so different from how they use pitch in English. The sincere efforts of Mandarin field language learners in this regard are much appreciated!

…And How to Tame It

For those of us who are trying to learn Mandarin for the Mandarin field, it should help if we keep the following points in mind regarding Mandarin tones:

  • Tones are just as important to conveying meaning in Mandarin as vowels are to conveying meaning in English. In English, if someone says a wrong vowel, that person is not actually saying the word that person meant to say, and that person is not expressing the meaning that person meant to express. For example, there’s a world of difference between “I love you” and “I leave you”, even though it’s “only” the matter of a single vowel. Similarly, in Mandarin, if someone uses a wrong tone, that person is saying a whole different word from what that person meant to say, as shown by the classic example of “mā (ma; mom; mummy; mother)/ (hemp; flax; linen | (surname) | {[is] pocked; pockmarked; pitted; spotty} [→ [[is] rough; coarse]] | numbed; tingling | sesame麻/蔴)/ (horse [(surname)] [→ [knight chess piece; horse piece in Chinese chess | [is] big; large]])/ ({verally abuse}; curse; swear; {call names} [→ [condemn; rebuke; reprove; scold]]罵/駡)/ma ([? ptcl for “yes/no” questions]).
  • In languages like English, we may change the pitch of what we are saying to do things like add emphasis, ask a question, etc. In Mandarin, though, as explained above, the tone of a syllable—which involves how pitch is used while saying it—is an essential part of how that syllable represents meaning. So, while in English the way we use pitch while saying a word may be negotiable based on how we want to emphasize it, etc., in Mandarin, tones are non-negotiable, like our stand on blood transfusions is non-negotiable. A first tone, for example, must always be recognizable as a first tone and must not be changed into a fourth tone or something, no matter how much we want to emphasize a Mandarin word with a first tone in it!
    • How can we add emphasis in Mandarin, then? Study 10 of the Teaching (th) brocure, entitled “Modulation”, tells us that ‘we can convey ideas clearly and stir emotion by varying our volume, pitch, and pace’. So, while the pitches of Mandarin tones are non-negotiable, we can still add emphasis in Mandarin by varying volume—by speaking softer or louder—and/or by varying pace—by speaking slower or faster.
  • Wrong tones can be really cì’ěr (cì’·ěr {stabbing → [irritating]} · ear → [grating on the ear] 刺耳) because, as mentioned above, tones are made of pitch, and when one speaks with wrong pitches, it’s a lot like singing off-key—very grating to the ears of those who know how the music of the language should sound! 🎵

With the above points in mind, do the following:

  • Practise recognizing the different tones and telling them apart when listening to Mandarin speech. This is especially important if you have just recently started to learn Mandarin, and are not used to what Mandarin tones sound like yet. Such practice is needed to gradually train your hearing. As it is with determining if a musical instrument is in tune or not, eventually, with focus and practice, recognizing Mandarin tones will become easier, even second nature.
    • As you get better at being able to recognize good Mandarin tones when you hear them, that will in turn help you to make sure you speak with good Mandarin tones. Speaking of which…
  • Practise speaking with correct Mandarin tones. This is also especially important if you have just recently started to learn Mandarin, and are not used to speaking with Mandarin tones yet. Such practice is needed to gradually train your body’s system for producing speech. Beware: If you let yourself get into bad habits early on involving the tones, then you’ll have to walk a long, hard road to get rid of these bad habits later. As it is with playing a musical instrument well, eventually, with focus, study, and practice, speaking with correct Mandarin tones will become easier, even second nature. 🎸

The Cantonese Twist

As discussed in the MEotW post on “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言), to those who know Mandarin well, Cantonese that is twisted to try to make it sound like Mandarin sounds awful:

Well, as someone who along with many others has come to the Mandarin field from the Cantonese field, I have had the dubious pleasure of observing how some have tried to speak Mandarin by just taking the Cantonese they knew and twisting it a little, since they were relying on the conventional wisdom that Mandarin and Cantonese are just different dialects of the same language. As well-meaning as they may have been, the results were often just as bad as when someone sings badly off-key, or as Star Trek fans may say, they often sounded like the language equivalent of a transporter accident 🙀. Even after decades in the Mandarin field, some publishers who had come over from the Cantonese field still say some Mandarin words with Cantonese-y pronunciations.

Any Cantonese-speakers who help out in the Mandarin field are very much appreciated, but it would be good for everyone involved if they realized that, contrary to worldly political propaganda, Mandarin and Cantonese are not just different dialects of the same Chinese language. Rather, as linguists recognize, Mandarin and Cantonese, being mutually unintelligible, are really different languages, like French and English are different languages. So, we should all understand and expect that as different languages, Mandarin and Cantonese have different phonologies. That is, they basically sound different, not just like slightly twisted versions of each other. Some, in fact, have compared how different Mandarin and Cantonese sound to how different chickens and ducks sound.

Avoiding Being “a Clashing Cymbal”

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1.

Chinese people are known for being very appreciative of Westerners who try to speak Mandarin or one of the other Chinese languages, and for often praising the spoken results of such efforts as being much better than they actually are. Beginning Chinese language learners especially are often given lots of leeway when it comes to how they sound.

After a few years or even decades, though, does our Mandarin speech, for example, still sound not much better than it did when we started learning Mandarin? Some have observed that those who focus on Chinese characters and pay relatively little attention to Mandarin speech often—unsurprisingly—don’t speak Mandarin very well. Some may say that their focusing on Chinese characters shows their love for Chinese culture, but is it not more important for Christians especially to show love for Chinese people by learning to actually understand what they say and learning to speak to them understandably? And as Witnesses of Jehovah, is it not more important to show love for Jehovah by being able to speak clearly, understandably, and movingly in Mandarin about him and the good news of his Kingdom?

While a lot of leeway is rightly given to beginning Mandarin language leaners, one not progressing after learning Mandarin for a long time might in some cases give at least the impression of a lack of caring, a lack of love on the part of that one. (Hebrews 5:12) As humans, we can often tell if something has not been made, done, or said lovingly, with care, for example, if not much attention to “details” like tones is evident. On the other hand, even if some music is performed or something is said in a way that may show only a modest amount of skill or talent, but that does show a lot of love, people often appreciate that more than if one is displaying great skill or talent, but is only doing so to show off or something. Such a one would indeed seem like “a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal”, or, as the Mandarin NWT Bible says, a “chǎonào ({(disturbing by) making noise} 吵闹 吵鬧) de (’s 的) luó (gong), cì’ěr (cì’·ěr {stabbing → [irritating]} · ear → [grating on the ear] 刺耳) de (’s 的) (cymbal)”.—1 Corinthians 13:1 (English, Mandarin).

Categories
Culture History Language Learning Technology Theocratic

jiùsuàn

jiùsuàn (jiù·suàn {even if} · {figuring → [considering]} 就算) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

I have long especially liked 1 Corinthians 13. It contains counsel on what really does and doesn’t matter in life, an extensive description and definition of the most important kind of love, and a sublime discussion about the need to become complete, mature, as a person. As these apply to life in general, so too do they apply to our lives as Mandarin field language learners.

As Mandarin field language learners, it can benefit us greatly to consider what we can learn from 1 Corinthians 13, and along the way, we can also consider some of the Mandarin expressions used in that chapter in the current version of the Mandarin New World Translation Bible (nwtsty).

“If…”

The second Mandarin expression that occurs in verse 1 (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus) of 1 Corinthians 13 (after “Wǒ (I 我)) is this week’s MEotW, “jiùsuàn (jiù·suàn {even if} · {figuring → [considering]} 就算).

Screenshot of “jiùsuàn” in 1 Co. 13:1 (nwtsty, CHS+_Pīnyīn_ WOL)

(Dark mode for the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY (WOL) website, as shown in the above image, can be enabled in the Safari web browser by using the Noir Safari extension.)

“Jiù (then; already | exactly | regarding | immediately | merely | {move towards} | {engage in} | accomplish; make | accommodate | {go with} | {even if} 就) can mean many different things, as can be seen from its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus information. The meaning that seems to apply in “jiùsuàn (jiù·suàn {even if} · {figuring → [considering]} 就算) is “even if”.

Calculating…

As for “suàn (calculate; compute; figure | count (v) [→ [consider/regard as]] 算), one of its meanings is “calculate”. (In fact, a “jìsuàn jī ((jì·suàn computing · calculating 计算 計算) (jī machine機/机) [computer | calculator (Taiwan)]) is a computer, or a calculator.)

There certainly is a long history of calculating done in the long history of China, such as all the calculating done to save face, advance ambitions, and acquire status in the official bureaucracy and in the imperial court. Perhaps because of Chinese cultural tradition or out of habit inherited from the world, some may have a tendency to do similar calculating in the Mandarin field. Rather than focusing on the work of praising Jehovah and preaching to and teaching Mandarin-speaking ones, some might be focusing on ways to receive “glory from one another”.—John 5:44.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 admonishes us though, that jiùsuàn (jiù·suàn {even if} · {figuring → [considering]} 就算) this is done, even if such calculating is done to figure in things like ‘speaking in the tongues of men and of angels’, ‘understanding…all knowledge’ (perhaps, for example, knowledge of Chinese characters), various boastworthy deeds, etc., if one does not have love, then all those other things mean nothing:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all the sacred secrets and all knowledge, and if I have all the faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my belongings to feed others, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I do not benefit at all.

Let us, then, examine our hearts to make sure that we avoid letting pride be our motivation. Instead, let us cultivate love for Jehovah and for our Mandarin-speaking neighbours, so that love is what motivates us in our efforts to learn the language and serve in the Mandarin field.

Categories
Culture Language Learning Science

duōyú

duōyú (duō·yú {(too) much/many} · surplus; excess → [unnecessary; surplus; superfluous; uncalled-for; redundant | excessive] 多余 多餘) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Following on from last week’s MEotW post that discussed unnecessary ceremony, this week’s MEotW is “duōyú (duō·yú {(too) much/many} · surplus; excess → [unnecessary; surplus; superfluous; uncalled-for; redundant | excessive] 多余 多餘), which means “unnecessary; surplus; superfluous; uncalled-for; redundant”, or “excessive”.

Here are the usage examples for this expression provided by the Pleco app’s built-in dictionary:

📖 📄 📘 Shāndiào (Shān·diào delete · {to be dropped → [away]} 删掉 刪掉) duōyú (duō·yú {(too) many} · excess → [superfluous] 多余 多餘) de ( 的) cíyǔ (cí·yǔ words · expressions 词语 詞語)

cut out superfluous words and phrases

📖 📄 📘 Zài (in 在) jíshì (jí·shì {gathered (things) → [country market]} · market → [country market] 集市) shang (upon 上) chūshòu (chū·shòu {put out} · {to sell} 出售) duōyú (duō·yú {(too) many} · surplus → [surplus] 多余 多餘) de (’s 的) nóng (farming) chǎnpǐn (chǎn·pǐn {given birth to → [produced]} · products 产品 產品)

sell surplus farm products in the market

📖 📄 📘 Shìshí (Shì·shí matters · {being solid} → [facts] 事实 事實) zhèngmíng (zhèng·míng proved · {to be clear} 证明 證明) wǒmen de ((wǒ·men us · [pl] 我们 我們) (de ’s 的) [our]) dānxīn (dān·xīn {carryings on a shoulder pole → [bearings of (heavy)]} · hearts → [worryings] 担/耽心 擔/耽心) shì (were 是) duōyú (duō·yú {(too) many} · excess → [uncalled-for] 多余 多餘) de (’s 的).

Facts proved that our worries were uncalled-for.

Speaking of “unnecessary”…

Are Chinese Characters Necessary?

This question may be downright heretical to Chinese culture purists, who would say things like “Of course characters are necessary!” and “Chinese culture without the characters would be inconceivable, just inconceivable! Yes, that would be totally and utterly inconceivable!”

If one’s goal is to fit in with the current Chinese world, especially if one is living in a place where the characters are used in everyday life, government services, etc., then of course one will need to know at least some characters, eventually. But, does that mean that Chinese characters should be the primary focus of Mandarin field language learners from day one?

Both modern linguistics (language science) and God’s Word the Bible itself testify against this. A basic principle of modern linguistics is that speech is primary, not writing, and at 1 Corinthians 14:8–11, the Bible emphasizes the primary importance of understandable speech, not even mentioning writing when it does so:

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.

So, while the characters seem necessary from the point of view of traditional worldly Chinese culture that’s intent on glorifying and perpetuating itself, someone whose primary goals in learning Mandarin are to praise Jehovah and to reach the hearts of Mandarin-speakers with the good news of the Kingdom should really primarily focus on understanding Mandarin speech and speaking Mandarin understandably, from the very beginning:

Your first linguistic goal should be to “utter speech easily understood.” [emphasis added] (1 Corinthians 14:8-11) Though people may be tolerant, mistakes or a heavy accent may distract them from listening to your message. Giving attention to proper pronunciation and grammar right from the start will prevent you from forming bad habits that are hard to break.
“Serving With a Foreign-Language Congregation”, in the March 15, 2006 Watchtower.

A Simple, Elegant, Effective Alternative

The above quote also appears in the article “SPEECH is Top Priority, Not Characters”, which contains other information as well showing why it is that characters and their visual extravagances and traditional complexities are often duōyú (duō·yú {(too) much} · excess → [excessive] 多余 多餘) for Mandarin field language learners. Here is an excerpt:

Publishers need to learn to understand Mandarin speech to benefit spiritually from Mandarin meetings, because the talks, comments, etc. at such meetings are made of Mandarin speech, not characters. In fact, focusing on characters makes this problem worse because it makes learning Mandarin speech harder and slower. At the very least, it distracts from learning Mandarin speech.

In contrast, the simple, elegant Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) writing system handily does the job of representing Mandarin speech in written form without the unnecessary complexities and ceremonial baggage of the characters. When you do need to use a writing system for Mandarin, then, use Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) when you can, and just use characters when you have to. Seriously, doing so is not inconceivable!