Traditional vs. Simplified Chinese: What’s the Difference?

The reason why you are probably here reading this article is that you have started learning the Chinese language and has narrowed it down to deciding whether you should be learning the Traditional or the Simplified version. To help you decide, it would be best to take Chinese lessons in Singapore, but for the purpose of this article, here are three glaring differences between the two.

Geography. As China is a very vast country, it is rather hard to unify the spoken and written language to be used. Traditional is mainly used in places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia. The Simplified Chinese however, is greatly utilised in mainland China (People’s Republic of China) and Singapore.

Complexity. Traditional translation is rather more complex as it dates back to the olden times where people were more intricate and more detailed. There are more strokes to its characters in writing. For the Simplified version, people want to get the message across faster hence they simplified the characters but remaining efficient.

Character Individuality and Ease of Learning. For those beginning to learn Chinese, the difference between the two should be weighed properly. The characters in the traditional translation vary slightly, and debates have risen saying that learning it is rather hard as characters look similar. The Simplified translation, however, is distinct from one another but due to the number of characters present, a certain simplified character might look similar to another character which has an entirely different meaning. This gives the brain ambiguous clues which confuse the learner.

There are more differences between these two Chinese translations, and it would be best to consult a proper learning school for more in-depth analysis.

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