Chinese language is very easy to learn if you are motivated as in any language there are some challenging aspects and I am happy to share with you all the difficulties and teach you for free.
Today's lesson will discuss a very complicated topic for a beginner whether to learn traditional or simplified characters. If you learn chinese in Mainland China or Singapore, then you will learn simplified characters. But if you study in Taiwan or Hong Kong, Macao then most probably you will learn traditional characters.
I think you can guess their distance by their name but let me explain a bit dipper.
Simplified characters are called 繁体字, traditional characters are called 繁體字
On the picture a) are traditional and b) are simplified.
The simplified characters were proposed in 1920s. Before simplified characters were used for certain calligraphy style. It was implemented by the Chinese government in 1956. The country's official language is called Putonghua (普通话 pǔtōnghuà). You may also heard another name for it - Mandarin. This is due to the fact that the Beijing dialect was taken as a basis, which was used by Chinese officials, nicknamed "Mandarins", long before the reform. But even after the reform, simplified Chinese continued to change for a long time. In 1987, the “Summary Table of Simplified Characters” (Ð化字 总 表 jiǎnhuàzì zǒngbiǎo) was published, which included 2,235 simplified characters.
###What is the difference?
Luckily, not all Chinese characters have changed, so many phrases will be spelled the same in both traditions. For example, the following phrases are composed exclusively of characters that have only one form of writing:
太好 了。
Tài hǎo le.
It's great!
今天 星期三。
Jīntiān xīngqīsān.
Today is Wednesday.
What was simplified?
One of the most common cases of simplification is when one component is replaced in a complex character. Its simplification leads to a change in the appearance of the whole character. The component may be a key radical or a simple character included in a complex one. Sometimes it can be a combination of several simple characters, the joint use of which has changed.
You may choose what system to learn by simply deciding if you want to travel to mainland China or Hong Kong or Taiwan. I normally teach simplified version and then people start to learn language deeper and learn traditional version as well.
Wow, what a great information. I had no idea that Chinese characters are different in China and Hong Kong
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thank you so much for your feedback 😊
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Chinese is difficult but I want and love to learn. Thank you for sharing.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thank you so much!! Learning is always challenging yet pleasant
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit