Traditional or simplified?

As far as I know they're Simplified, if there is a way to put them into Traditional I've never found it. The thing is if you learn one script it's a pretty easy step into the other. I started off learning Simplified but now whatever I can read in Simplified I can also read in Traditional as well. Honestly the best thing (as much as I hate to say it because I prefer Traditional) is to start off learning Simplified because a far greater portion of the Chinese people know and use Simplified. Your wife will in all likelyhood agree with me. Traditional are only in active use in Hong Kong and Taiwan, although in Mainland China the Traditional script is making a comeback, but it's going to be a long time if ever before it replaces Simplified. Trust me go with Simplified. They are also easier to learn to write by hand.

The Chinese Community in the UK mostly uses Traditional, but over the past few years more and more stores in China Town in London have started using Simplified as well. Like most of you, I prefer Traditional. This was what I learnt first and I love it. I love the history and I love writing them. To be truthful, I had problems reading Simplified when I first started learning Mandarin. Now I can get by & interchange between the two, although my brain still reverts back to Traditional (when writing) when under stress. It would be a shame if the Traditional Character set disappears; I hope this will not happen as I hope future generation can continue to learn both versions and appreciate the Chinese history behind the language.

chinesepod mostly uses simplified, but if i were you i would learn the traditional because it's more beautiful and because your wife is from Taiwan, so she can help you. Although she probably can write simplified fluenty as well, I am guessing she prefers traditional. after you learn traditional, the simplified version is pretty easy to guess, once you learn the changes in the radicals.

There's beta support for traditional characters available through a Firefox plugin. It changes annotated site texts (dialogues, expansion sentences, etc.) to traditional Chinese. You can also add traditional words to your vocab lists, etc.. The details are here. chinesepod.com/2007/04/25/firefox-plugin-for-traditional-chinese/

Truth be told, it really doesn't matter. If you plan on spending your time in Taiwan, learn traditional. If you plan on mainly being in the mainland, go with simplified. Most overseas Chinese use traditional. So, for example, if you are in the US and married to a woman from Taiwan and have no immediate travel plans, traditional may be the best chioce. In time you will read both. I remember reading about changing the exercises and other premium stuff to traditional, but it was done with a browser plug-in or something like that.

You can get easily get the daily transcripts in traditional. You can less easily view most of the website in traditional, using a Firefox plug-in. I haven't looked at ChinesePod's help functions on this issue in a while - hopefully the features are clearer than they used to be. They're around but often not sign-posted all that well. If you're IN Taiwan, you definitely want to learn traditional, since you'll get lots of reinforcement from the environment. Outside Taiwan, it's not such a big deal, and it's probably easier to find material that uses Simplified Characters. (Even here in Taiwan, if I want a dictionary that uses example sentences in both Chinese and English, it pretty much has to be a foreign-published simplified character text.)

Thanks for the thoughts folks... seems like I have many options. I need to really learn Traditional if at all possible because I will spend most of my time in Taiwan due to family and whatnot. Believe it or not, my wife says she cannot read Simplified... so there's another vote for Traditional.

vrmyndax says: "Believe it or not, my wife says she cannot read Simplified..." That's quite common in Taiwan. And most people are not willing to deal with them. And they are ugly, too.

sweetwatermelon2, I would NEVER say Simplified Characters are, "UGLY", just that they don't look as attractive or shall we say FINISHED (balanced maybe?) as Traditional. It's a cinch Simplified Characters are head and shoulders (and torso, legs and feet to) above English. In fact, give me simplified over ANY WRITTED LANGUAGE other than Traditional Chinese. So while Simplified may look like a second class citizen to Traditional but when your dealing with such a HIGHT AND LOFTY group, taking second prize is not bad at all!

"Believe it or not, my wife says she cannot read Simplified.." I don't believe it. If a person grows up learning traditional characters it is not that hard to read simplified texts. This is true for all the Taiwanese people that I have met anyways. The Taiwanese people that I have spent time with is not small. In addition, recently I met a man from China that spends a lot of time reading a Traditional Character newspaper so that he can function in both. This man has a doctorate degree so his brain isn't dull but he is able to read both simplified and traditional. This being said, all I really want to say is that learning characters is extremely helpful. Simplified-Traditional, first and foremost comes to the choice to learn characters period. Seems like you have made the choice to learn characters. Fantastic! May your brain be like super glue so that every character you ever see, simplified and traditional, sticks and never leaves you. My preference? Traditional Peace

Hi vermyndax I don't know it this will help or hinder, but each of the lessons I receive through iTunes have 2 separate PDFs, one Traditional, one Simplified.

LONG TERM - I think the choice is easy if you just think where you will live and use your Chinese. If it's America, Taiwan or Hong Kong then go traditional. If it's China, then simplified. Either way, spend a little time, a good short book, a few hours and just look over the differences, once familiar with them, either is not really that intimidating while learning the other.

What if it's an overseas Chinese community? ;)

Sorry, you did say America. I'm assume Traditional would be mostly used in UK communities.

I think you hit the nail on the head David. There seems to be a level of functionality for all native learners of HanZi to read either traditional or simplified. Yet what tends to be first communicated is a preference. So, would the thought of first learning one style of characters well, to a variable point of functionality, then allowing the input of both forms of characters be a healthy theory to life-long learning of Mandarin? I am saddened that the daily use of traditional characters seems to be in danger of extinction. The era of simplified characters is so small in comparison to the full history of China. I know this isn't the popular thought, but the popular thought isn't always the most accurate either. I challenge the theory that the use of pinyin is the best way for foreigners to learn Mandarin. This challenge deserves a doctoral thesis so I can't fully articulate my thoughts here. Here is some food for thought anyways. Take the zh sound for example. To and native English speaker z and h already have a place with sound in the brain. Now learn Mandarin. Not only does the brain have to learn the new sound, but also has to do a little battle of differentiation of which sounds for those two little letters it needs to make. Why not just make a new place in the brain for Mandarin? Not English. Just Mandarin. Learning ㄓ for the Chinese sound of 知 really harder? Is it easier? Hmm, sounds like a doctoral thesis to me. How about 說 and 说? Is one really easier to learn than the other? The traditional form does have more stoke marks but when it comes to reading and writing Chinese, one has to sweat to learn, either form. Does it matter if a bead of sweat runs down the right side of your face rather than the left? Trying to think as a child, I find myself thinking that either form is going to take a rather similar effort to learn. Frankly, neither is easy, but it is a fact that both forms take effort to learn. So, all these proposals basically brings us back again to the notion that "Simplified-Traditional, first and foremost comes to the choice to learn characters period(no matter what form)." Yes, I have my preference, my comfort zone, as do others. But the idea that pinyin and simplified characters made/makes it easier for a country, and let's lump foreigners into the pile too, to learn reading and writing Chinese, IMO is a bunch of 狗屎. I would like to continue trying to make some sense of this topic, but its late here. I need sleep. Maybe this tread will become a good place for everyone to express thoughts on this topic further. 大家學學漢字. 大家学学汉字.

I think knowing Simplified will allow you to read pretty much all Chinese websites. Although many also have a Traditional version.

Well, I seem to have sparked an interesting discussion. It may be accurate that my wife just chooses not to read Simplified. I just know that Traditional is likely my best bet for compatibility with her and Taiwan at the moment. I personally think it is useful to sharpen skills on both forms of writing. Someone earlier mentioned about the false benefit of PinYin to English speakers and I have to agree - in my experience (which is admittedly quite light compared to the vast knowledge here), PinYin does nothing but throw off my pronunciation skills for Mandarin. PinYin becomes the subject of many jokes within our house as well... :)

I agree, Bazaa, but you should say knowing simplified will allow you to read pretty much all Chinese websites from china (end in .cn). There are also Chinese websites from taiwan (end in .tw, as in http://www.google.com.tw)

Good point KennyK.

READING - hi M2T, In my experience I do know a few people who can read traditional but not simplified. What you say though is not incorrect either. Here's why. If you learned traditional Chinese before the changes in China to simplified and then lived overseas, it is not easy to pick up the simplified. Unless one studies, and like any other typical adult learner, that's hard sometimes. If you are a Chinese person on the mainland today, it is not too difficult to go back and forth, especially for those who are more educated and have 'studied' more of the classic and traditional hanzi. There is plenty of exposure to traditional on the mainland from t.v. subtitles, dvds, books, etc. In Taiwan I can't think of specific cases, but I would imagine the more dealings with the mainland that a person has, the more likely they will have put in a little time to familiarize themselves with the simplified. But a person could easily say "they can't read simplified" when what they mean is they prefer not to. When I read your postings, I often just guess at the character and slowly it seems to fill in. My level is not high enough to really fluently go back and forth, but I'm not scared of traditional either b/c I started learning those, but only for about three months.