Learning Simplified Chinese, should I also start learning Traditional?
I’ve been learning Mandarin for about a year now and am plugging my way through TUTTLE’s very helpful "Learning Chinese Characters – HSK Level A". I have however, not been paying much attention to the traditional characters. I would like to eventually learn the traditional characters (especially if I ever want to go to Hong Kong). Would it be easiest to learn these as I learn the simplified ones? If I already know the simplified character, how hard is it to learn the traditional one.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Because traditional chinese characters are difficulｔ for Chinese,the government make simplified one and make the chinese people use simplified one.Neither do the Americans.I don’t think you have to remember traditional ones.
July 8th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
you know when the communism party took over the Chinese mailand,they adopted "the simplified written hanzi system" in order to make it easier to write.But Taiwan and HongKong have been using the traditional written system until now.
I personally feel traditional hanzi is more like real hanzi.anyway,to answer your question,it is not that hard.I mean,I have never studied traditional hanzi,but most of the time,I can read in traditional hanzi like 99%.
finally,I am gonna tell you my personal opinion.do you really wanna do that ?it is gonna take a while.plus the simplified form is the trend for sure with the rise of China .
oh by the way,lots of traditional hanzi are being used in Japanese.
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July 8th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I started with Traditional and as my friends and I have gathered, it’s easier to go from Traditional to Simplified than it is to go the other way. But it’s not impossible. (And yes, I think you should at least have a familiarity of both if you plan on being a serious and long term Chinese student)
The best advice I’ve heard is: Wait until you have 1500 or so characters under your belt before you start learning traditional. If you’re not counting characters, then wait until you feel fairly comfortable reading along with TV programs and feel brave enough to pick up a newspaper.
Otherwise, it’ll just feel really confusing to go back and forth (before you have that solid foundation).
加油!! You can do it!
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July 8th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Hello!I am 29 yaers old girl living in Taiwan and I am a native Chineae user. I can teach you Chinese by being your panpel(E-mail)!For FREE!But may you teach me English in the same way?Please Email me for more detail.
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mylisa2002@hotmail.com
July 8th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Generally, people who study only with traditional Chinese characters can easily learn how to read simplified characters, but not the other way around. If you’re planning to travel to Hong Kong, Taiwan, or any other American Chinatown, knowing just simplified characters will not help you much.
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July 8th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
In order to make it easier to write, the "simplified written Chinese characters system" was adopted after communist party took over the Chinese mainland, But Taiwan and Hong Kong have been using the traditional written system until now. So if you want to go to Hong Kong, It is necessary to learn traditional Chinese characters.
Of course it will be easier to learn traditional Chinese characters after you learned the simplified ones. Because the simplified ones are all derived from the traditional ones, and the former is easier to learn.
If you still have any questions related to Chinese characters, feel free to email me at jennifer.zhu@echineselearning.com, I’m always happy to help you with Chinese characters.
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July 8th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Because traditional chinese characters are difficulｔ for Chinese,the government make simplified one and make the chinese people use simplified one.Neither do the Americans.I don’t think you have to remember traditional ones.
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July 8th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Don’t worry, the traditional ones pronunciation is the same as simplified.
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July 8th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
if you want to hong kong ,you had better learn the traditional characters. The simplified does not use there. the traditional one is hard in writing, but the sound is the same.
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