從 + 來

 

For this week, I'd like to talk about 從. It mostly has to do with being the Chairman on Sunday. When introducing the Public Talk speaker, I sometimes hear 黃弟兄從Kalihi會衆 or 黃弟兄是從Kalihi會衆的長老. This, I think, is the result of a faulty translation of "Brother Wong is from the Kalihi congregation." or "Brother Wong is an elder from the Kalihi congregation."

 

The correct sentence should be 黃弟兄從Kalihi 會衆來 or 黃弟兄是從Kalihi 會衆來的長老. Please note the sentence pattern 從 ... 來. Never forget the 來.

 

Alternatively, you can say 黃弟兄來自Kalihi 會衆 or 黃弟兄是來自Kalihi 會衆的長老.

 

If the speaker is from our own congregation, you can simply say 今天的講者是我們會衆的黃弟兄 or 今天的講者是黃弟兄，他是我們會衆的長老. I prefer the first one because it uses fewer words.

Tone Changing

 

A few of you had problems with the 1st tone and 4th tone, which is weird since these two tones are the easiest. I think this is because you're confused by the tone changing rules. Please see the following YoYo Chinese Youtube video. She does a good job explaining tone changing. It's a little long (45 minutes) but she made it fun to watch. (And she's easy on the eyes😍）

I noticed that the Pinyin publications indicated tones in the ways of how you're supposed to read them, not necessarily the default tones of each character. As a result, if you're just learning from the Pinyin publications, you may learn the wrong tones of some characters. Just something to watch out for.

The Pinyin Final: ü

Just to show you that Larry is not infallible, a sister told me after the meeting that the Chinese phrase I used in my part, 坦白從寛，抗拒從嚴 (Confess and you'll be shown leniency, argue and you'll be dealt with harshly) was a phrase frequently used by the Red Guards and communist officials during the Cultural Revolution. Millions of innocent people were tortured or murdered in the Cultural Revolution. Therefore, I think it's inappropriate to use the phrase and I won't use that anymore.

 

Another point I would like to point out is that a lot of friends are still having trouble with the Pinyin final ü. It's important for you to get this one right because there are simply too many words with ü that are used daily. Some examples are:

 

女人 Women/woman

女性 Female

兒女 Children

律法 / 法律 Laws

去 To go

旅行 Traveling

先驅 Pioneer(s)

拒絶 Refuse / Reject

聚會 Meeting(s)

 

I've attached a link to Yoyo Chinese Youtube video above.

們 and 被

 

I would like to share with you a lesson plan we used back in 2017 Chinese class. It talks about 們 and 被.

 

Some people like to use 們 to indicate plural form of something. For instance, some people call "elders" 長老們, "brothers and sisters" 弟兄姊妹們, "congregations" 會眾們. There are two points you need to remember regarding 們. (1) It's used on people only. (2) Sometimes it's not needed. In all three examples above, you're better off leaving out the 們. The trouble is, there's no clear, set rules so you simply have to listen more and read more to get it right.

 

Some people like to use 被 to indicate passive voice as in "I was told" 我被告訴  or "he was appointed as a pioneer" 他被委任做先驅. In the first example, it's way better to say 有人告訴我 (Somebody told me). In the second example, I prefer 他受委任做先驅. I notice that using 被 is gaining more acceptance and it's not considered wrong these days. It's just that usually it's something bad follows 被, such as 被殺 (was killed), 被逮捕 (was arrested), 被騙 (was scammed). Unfortunately there's no clear and set rules for that either so you'll have to be careful with 被. My advice is to follow what Mrs. Chun, my high school English teacher, said: avoid passive voice if you can.

帶頭 Taking the Lead

 I noticed some brothers saying something like 長老需要帶頭會眾 or 丈夫需要帶頭家人. Please note that 帶頭 is not a transitive verb, which means there should be nothing following it. In the examples above, the correct sentences should be 長老需要帶頭 and 丈夫需要帶頭. Alternatively you can say 長老需要在傳道工作上帶頭 or 丈夫需要在屬靈常規中帶頭.