Tag: Pīnyīn

Categories
Culture Experiences Language Learning Science Theocratic

hǎohāo[r]

hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒]) ← 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.]

A few years back, I wrote up a brief web page listing reasons for producing Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), etc. material for the Imitate (ia) book. Some, especially some who grew up in the West, may have felt that this book is made up of “just stories”, and ones that they were already quite familiar with, at that. However, we must remember that Chinese Bible students may often have a different perspective regarding the Bible accounts that are made to come to life in the Imitate book. As that web page said:

  • Many Chinese people in the world have not been exposed to Bible accounts the way many Westerners have.
  • Also, I have heard that some, perhaps many, Chinese Bible students tend to approach their Bible studies like intellectual exercises for accumulating chōuxiàng (abstract) head knowledge as if for a school exam, rather than as training for their hearts for their own real lives.

Later, the web page touches on how some of the real-world benefits of good storytelling like that found in the Imitate book involve empathy:

  • …
    • The actress Natalie Portman once said, “I love acting. I think it’s the most amazing thing to be able to do. Your job is practicing empathy. You walk down the street imagining every person’s life.”
  • The Imitate book helps build Bible students’ empathy towards Bible characters, which in turn helps Bible students realize that others would feel empathy towards them as well if they imitated these Bible characters—not everyone will just think they’re crazy, like many worldly friends or family members might think.

While even fictional stories can have the benefits described in the links and the quote above, true stories from the Bible can have even greater benefits, including spiritual ones.

Besides the Imitate book, another book from Jehovah’s organization that relates Bible accounts is the Learn From the Bible (lfb) book. The letter from the Governing Body in this book says that, similarly to the Imitate book, the Learn From the Bible book also “brings the Bible accounts to life and captures the feelings of those depicted”, while, unlike the Imitate book, it “tells the story of the human family from creation onward”. While the Learn From the Bible book is especially suitable for children, the letter from the Governing Body in this book says that “it can also be used to help adults who desire to learn more about the Bible”. So, it would be good to consider on this blog some of the expressions used in the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book.

Same Character, Different Morphemes/Words

This week’s MEotW, “hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])”, appears in the second paragraph of Lesson 20 of the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book, which is entitled “Jiē ({Came into Contact with} → [Took Hold of] (the Baton Next) 接) Xialai (Xia·lai Down · {to Come} 下来 下來) de (’s 的) Liù (Six 六) Chǎng ([mw for recreational, sports, or other activities] 场 場/塲) Zāiyāng (Calamities → [Plagues] 灾殃 災殃)” (“The Next Six Plagues”):

English:

The next day, the animals began to die. But the animals of the Israelites didn’t die.

Mandarin (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus):

📖 📄 📘 Dì‐èr ((Dì (on the) [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(èr two 二) → [(on the) second]) tiān (sky → [day] 天), Āijí (Egypt 埃及) jiù (then 就) sǐle (sǐ·le {had die} · {to completion} 死了) hěn (very 很) duō (many 多) shēngkou (shēng·kou {domestic animal} · mouths → [domestic animals] 牲口), dànshì (dàn·shì but · {(it) was (that)} 但是) Yǐsèliè‐rén ((Yǐsèliè Israel 以色列)‐(rén people 人) → [Israelites]) de (’ 的) shēngkou (shēng·kou {domestic animal} · mouths → [domestic animals] 牲口) què (however 却 卻) dōu (all 都) hǎohāor (hǎo·hāo·r {were well} · {were well} · {child → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]} → [were alright] 好好[儿] 好好[兒]) de ({’s (domestic animals)} 的).

“Hǎohāo[r] (Hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])” has what may seem at first like an unexpected pronunciation. Because its two morphemes are each written with the same familiar character “好”, one may at first expect that they would both have the same basic pronunciation of “hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)”, and that, in accordance with Mandarin’s tone sandhi rules, the first morpheme would be pronounced with a second tone and the second morpheme would be pronounced with a third tone.* However, actually, in “hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])” the second “好” character represents a different morpheme compared to the one represented by the first “好” character—while the first “好” character represents the familiar morpheme that is written in Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) as “hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)” and that means “well” in many contexts, the second “好” character represents a morpheme that is written in Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) as “hāo ({with care} | {[is] well} 好)” and that in some contexts means “well” and in other contexts means “with care”. (E.g., “hǎohāor (hǎo·hāo·r well · with care · {child → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]} 好好[儿] 好好[兒]) gōngzuò (gōng·zuò work · do → [work] 工作)” means “work well, with care”.)

While some supporters of Chinese characters erroneously claim that Mandarin has too many homophones (different words that have the same pronunciation) for Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) to be a practical writing system for it, their beloved characters suffer from homographs, different morphemes/words that are written the same way, with the same character. (“Hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)”, “hāo ({with care} | {[is] well} 好)”, and also “hào (like; {be fond of} [→ [have a tendency to; be likely to]] 好)” make up just one set of examples—there are many more.) And, just as characters are one way to help one distinguish homophones from one another (context is a better way), pronunciation, as represented by Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), can often help one distinguish homographs from one another, as we can see from the examples of “hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)”, “hāo ({with care} | {[is] well} 好)”, and “hào (like; {be fond of} [→ [have a tendency to; be likely to]] 好)”.

Children of Beijing

Also notable about the pronunciation of “hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])” is that it may be pronounced with “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿 兒)” at the end. While this “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿 兒)” has a literal meaning of “child” or “son”, the well-regarded ABC Chinese-English Dictionary provides this definition for this “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿 兒)”:

((diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect)

Something that deserves special attention about this “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿 兒)” suffix is that its pronunciation involves one of the sounds of Mandarin that is not like any of the sounds of English. The relatively well-known Sinosplice website has a couple of related pages with good information about this Mandarin sound, including directions on how to use one’s tongue, etc. to properly pronounce it:

For convenience:

The direct link for the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resource for the Learn From the Bible book is:

The short link for Chinese field language-learning links for the Learn From the Bible book is:

More Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web material based on the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book will be made available in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web resource as time allows.

 

* One expression in which this is the case is “hǎohǎo xiānsheng ((hǎo·hǎo {(it) is good/well → [OK; alright]} · {(it) is good/well → [OK; alright]} 好好) (xiān·sheng earlier · born (one) → [mister; Mr.] 先生) → [sb. who tries to please everybody/not offend anybody; Mr. Agreeable; yes-man])”. ^

Categories
Culture Language Learning Technology Theocratic

háowú

háowú (háo·wú {(even) a fine hair (of)} · {is not having} → [is not having even a little] 毫无 毫無) ← 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.]

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).

“I Do Not Benefit at All”

This week’s MEotW, “háowú (háo·wú {(even) a fine hair (of)} · {is not having} → [is not having even a little] 毫无 毫無)”, is used in verse 3 (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus) of 1 Corinthians 13:

Screenshot of “_háowú_” in 1 Co. 13:3 (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. Other web browsers may also have extensions with similar functionality.)

In “háowú (háo·wú {(even) a fine hair (of)} · {is not having} → [is not having even a little] 毫无 毫無)”, “háo ({[(even) a] fine hair [(of)]} | milli- 毫)” literally refers to a “fine hair”. As for “wú ({not having}; without; none; no | nothing 无 無/无)”, it means “not having; without; none; no”. So, “háowú (háo·wú {(even) a fine hair (of)} · {is not having} → [is not having even a little] 毫无 毫無)” literally means “a fine hair is not having”, and effectively means “is not having even a little”. This is an interesting metaphor for emphasizing to us the ultimate futility of doing things out of pride and not out of love, things like focusing Mandarin field language-learning efforts on Chinese cultural traditions like characters rather than on how best to communicate the good news. As a metaphor, it reminds me of the English expression of not having even a shadow of a doubt about something.

Below are English and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus renditions showing how “háowú (háo·wú {(even) a fine hair (of)} · {is not having} → [is not having even a little] 毫无 毫無)” is used in 1 Corinthians 13:3 in the current version of the Mandarin NWT Bible to correspond to “at all”, which is used in that verse in the current version of the English NWT Bible:

English:

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.

Mandarin (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus):

📖 📄 📘 Wǒ (I 我) jiùsuàn (jiù·suàn {even if} · {figuring → [considering]} 就算) biànmài (biàn·mài changing · sell → [sell off] 变卖 變賣) yíqiè (yí·qiè {one (whole)} · {corresponding (set of)} → [all] 一切) cáiwù (cái·wù wealth · things → [belongings] 财物 財物), ràng ({to allow} 让 讓) rén (people 人) yǒu ({to have} 有) shíwù (shí·wù eating · matter → [food] 食物) chī ({to eat} 吃 吃/喫), hái (also 还 還) shěshēn (shě·shēn {give up} · {(my) body} 舍身 捨身) juānqū (juān·qū {relinquish → [contribute]} · {(my) human body} 捐躯 捐軀), yǐcǐ (yǐ·cǐ using · this 以此) zìkuā (zì·kuā {(about) self} · {to boast} 自夸 自誇), què (but 却 卻) méiyǒu (méi·yǒu not · {do have} 没有 沒有) ài (love 爱 愛), zhè (this 这 這) duì (towards → [to] 对 對) wǒ (me 我) yě (even 也) háowú (háo·wú {(even) a fine hair (of)} · {does not have} → [does not have even a little] 毫无 毫無) yìchu (yì·chu beneficial · place → [benefit] 益处 益處).

Having a Word, or Not

While the WOL puts a space between “háo ({[(even) a] fine hair [(of)]} | milli- 毫)” and “wú ({not having}; without; none; no | nothing 无 無/无)”, the dictionaries I have checked all treat this expression as one word, with no space between the two morphemes. So, that is how Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material renders “háowú (háo·wú {(even) a fine hair (of)} · {is not having} → [is not having even a little] 毫无 毫無)”.

There seems to be a tendency in typical modern Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) to render many two-morpheme expressions this way, combined into single words. With Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material, I have so far decided to go along with this common practice, since the resulting expressions are still relatively easy to read. However, I am not so accepting of extending this common practice to combining three, four, or even more morphemes into single words, with no spaces or even hyphens in them. Doing so produces long, undifferentiated strings of characters that are hard to parse, and thus hard to read and reason on. So, I have decided to generally break up such long expressions into one- or two-morpheme words separated by hyphens or spaces, depending on the situation.

For example, compare “bìbùkěshǎo (bì·bù·kě·shǎo certainly · not · {can; is able; could | may} · {be missing} 必不可少)” with “bì (certainly 必)‐bùkě (bù·kě not · {can; is able; could | may} → [cannot; is not able; could not | may not] 不可)‐shǎo ({[be] few; little} | {[be] less} | lack; {be deficient} | lose; {be missing} 少)”. While some of the few Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) traditionalists in existence may object to it, I think the latter rendering is much easier to read and reason on, so that is how Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material now renders this expression—one of the few good things about how commonly used Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is not is that there is not really much established Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) tradition or common practice to be “trampled” on, allowing for more leeway for exploring beneficial innovations, compared to the situations with relatively ossified and hidebound writing systems like Chinese characters, or even the modern English writing system.

As for the PRC government’s official national standard for Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) orthography, with the designation GB/T 16159-2012, as discussed in the MEotW post on “diǎnliàng (diǎn·liàng {dot → [light (v); ignite]} · {to be bright} [→ [illuminate; shine light on]] 点亮 點亮)”, this is at most a set of recommendations that is not legally binding or anything like that, even in China itself.

Categories
Culture Experiences Language Learning Theocratic

jiàoyù

jiàoyù (jiào·yù teaching · educating [→ [education]] 教育) ← 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 was featuring the article “Can Education and Money Guarantee a Secure Future?”. Of interest to those of us in the Mandarin field, this article mentions the comments and experiences of several Asians. Where the English version of this article uses the word “education”, the Mandarin version uses this week’s MEotW, “jiàoyù (jiào·yù teaching · educating [→ [education]] 教育)”. (Since this article is from a relatively recent issue of The Watchtower, it provides the option to show Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音).)

Related Expressions

The “jiào (teach | {teaching [→ [religion]]} | cause/ask 教)” in “jiàoyù (jiào·yù teaching · educating [→ [education]] 教育)” is a verb meaning “teach”. It also appears in past MEotW “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)”, which means “teach” or “instruct”, and in “jiàoxun (teaching → [reprimanding | knowledge gained from an error; lesson; moral] 教训 教訓)”, which means “reprimanding” or “lesson”. (“Jiàoxun (teaching → [reprimanding | knowledge gained from an error; lesson; moral] 教训 教訓)” is also discussed in the MEotW post on “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)”.) This “jiào (teach | {teaching [→ [religion]]} | cause/ask 教)” can also effectively mean “religion”, as it does in “Jīdū Jiào ((Jīdū Christ 基督) (Jiào Teaching → [Religion] 教) → [Christianity | Christian])” and in “Tiānzhǔ Jiào ((Tiān·zhǔ Heavenly · Lord → [Catholic] 天主) (Jiào Teaching → [Religion] 教) → [Catholicism])”.

The “yù ({give birth to} | rear; raise; {bring up}; cultivate | educating [→ [education]] 育)” in “jiàoyù (jiào·yù teaching · educating [→ [education]] 教育)” is a verb meaning “educate”. In other contexts, such as in the expressions “shēngyù ({giving [of] birth} [→ [fertility]] 生育)” and “yùzhǒng (yù·zhǒng {giving birth to} · breeds → [breeding] 育种 育種)”, it can mean “give birth to”.

Verbs or Nouns

While “jiàoyù (jiào·yù teaching · educating [→ [education]] 教育)” and its constituent morphemes are verbs, they can also be nouns. As the MEotW post for “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)” explains:

One interesting thing to note about “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)” (and about “jiàoxun (teaching → [reprimanding | knowledge gained from an error] 教训 教訓)”, for that matter) is that their component morphemes seem to basically be verbs. In certain contexts, however, they are used as nouns. An example of this being done in English is that “teach” and “teaching” are verbs (e.g. “Jesus was teaching the crowd.”), but in certain contexts, “teaching” is used as a noun (e.g. “The crowd was amazed at the teaching Jesus shared with them.”). When a word is used this way, it’s called a verbal noun, or a gerundial noun. Verbal nouns are quite common in Mandarin.

Usage Examples

Here are a couple of examples of “jiàoyù (jiào·yù teaching · educating [→ [education]] 教育)” in use, taken from the above-mentioned article:

English:

Can Education and Money Guarantee a Secure Future?

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Jiàoyù (Jiào·yù Teaching · Educating → [Education] 教育) hé ({(together) with} → [and] 和 和/龢) Cáifù (Cái·fù Wealth · {Being Wealthy} 财富 財富) Néng (Can 能) Dàigěi (Dài·gěi Bring · {to Give to} 带给 帶給) Rén (People 人) Měihǎo (Měi·hǎo Beautiful · Good 美好) de (’s 的) Wèilái (Wèi·lái (What) {Is Not Yet} · Come → [Future] 未来 未來) Ma ([? ptcl for “yes/no” questions] 吗 嗎)?

English:

Like Franklin, many have concluded that there is more to life than pursuing higher education and riches.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Hěn (very 很) duō (many 多) rén (people 人) gēn (with 跟) Āfù (Franklin 阿富) yíyàng (yí·yàng {(of) one} · pattern → [the same] 一样 一樣), kànchū (kàn·chū see · out 看出) shēnghuó (shēng·huó life · living 生活) zhōng (within 中) yǒuxiē (yǒu·xiē {(there) are having → [(there) are]} · some 有些) shì (things 事) bǐ ({compared to} 比) zhuīqiú (zhuī·qiú pursuing · seeking 追求) gāoděng (gāo·děng high(er) · rank 高等) jiàoyù (jiào·yù teaching · educating → [education] 教育) hé ({(together) with} → [and] 和 和/龢) cáifù (cái·fù wealth · {being wealthy} 财富 財富) gèng (more 更) zhòngyào (zhòng·yào {being weighty} · {being important} 重要).

Education in the “Deep Things” of the World

In addition to the issues discussed in the above-mentioned article, the world’s higher education also tends to indoctrinate people in the “deep things” of this world that we know is ruled by Satan. Regarding these, chapter 10, paragraph 17 of the Revelation Climax book says:

Satan has other “deep things” today, such as complicated speculations and philosophies that flatter the intellect. In addition to permissive, immoral reasonings, these include spiritism and the theory of evolution. How does the all-wise Creator regard these “deep things”? The apostle Paul quotes him as saying: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise ones.” In contrast thereto, “the deep things of God” are simple, lucid, and heartwarming. Wise Christians shun the “deep things” of Satan’s sophisticated world. Remember, “the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.”—1 Corinthians 1:19, Kingdom Interlinear; 2:10; 1 John 2:17.

Should Chinese characters be counted as being among the “deep things” of Satan’s world? Well, they do come from Satan’s world, and, as per the above quote’s description, they certainly are complicated, and many do seem to enjoy how they flatter the intellect. Also, if they are allowed to, they can serve Satan’s interests by greatly adding to the weighty difficulties faced by Mandarin field language learners. In this respect, Chinese characters are like all the human traditions surrounding the Sabbath that added unnecessary weighty burdens to those trying to serve God in Jesus’ time, except that instead of just affecting God’s people one day a week, characters make things much harder than necessary for Mandarin field language learners every single day.

The article “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Was Plan A” says the following about the attitude of many of those highly educated in Chinese characters towards the prospect of Chinese writing reform that would make things much easier for future language learners:

…as noted above, “opposition [to Chinese writing reform] ‘comes primarily from intellectuals, especially from high level intellectuals.’ ” Lǔ Xùn (鲁迅/魯迅, Lu Xun), considered by many to be the greatest Chinese writer of the twentieth century (he wrote “The True Story of Ah-Q”, “Diary of a Madman”, and “My Old Hometown”), had this to say about the matter:

In addition to the limitations of social status and economic means, our Chinese characters present another high threshold to the masses: their difficulty. If you don’t spend ten or so years on them, it’s not easy to cross this threshold alone. Those who cross over it are the scholar-officials, and these same scholar-officials do their utmost to make writing as difficult as possible because it makes them especially dignified, surpassing all other ordinary scholar-officials.

…

Chinese characters and the Chinese literary language are already difficult enough by their own nature. On top of that, the scholar-officials have purposely devised all of these additional difficulties that get added on. Such being the case, how could anyone hope that the masses would have any affinity for the Chinese writing system? But the scholar-officials precisely want it to be this way. If the characters were easy to recognize and everybody could master them, then they would not be dignified, and the scholar-officials would lose their dignity along with them.

Being more concerned about one’s own “dignity” than about what would greatly relieve the suffering of others certainly sounds to me like an attitude that’s characteristic of people of Satan’s world. Don’t let Satan’s world—including its well-meaning Mandarin language teachers—“educate” you (in other words, brainwash you) into having such an ungodly and unchristian attitude!