@@icebreakLC No, they usually just give the simplified version in parenthesis or would give both versions of the same sentence/text side by side or on the bottom. Are you learning Mandarin Chinese through Korean or English? I'm from the states so a lot of the textbooks here tend to include both traditional and simplified since a lot of the Mandarin speakers here are from Taiwan.
@@icebreakLC That's cool, I imagine it would be easier to learn vocabulary through Korean instead of English because at least some of the words sound similar.
I'm more comfortable with Traditional writing even though I learned simplified writing back in school (Malaysia). I was exposed to both. Simplified writing does have a problem, even I got confused despite the characters being easier to write, sometimes it felt like I was missing something. Later, I searched out for Taiwanese sources and have since converted full to using Traditional writing, it's strange because it's supposed to be harder but it turned out easier to remember. That said, knowing both is good, because you'll encounter both. I'd argue that knowing Traditional writing first is better, it's a very good foundation. Simplified writing used to be personal shortcuts being standardised only (with some new creations too), I've seen people mixing the two in handwriting.
Thanks for sharing! Was learning Chinese(Simplified) in Malaysia one of your foreign language subjects? What are the mandatory/optional foreign language subjects taught in school in Malaysia?
@@icebreakLC Malay and English is compulsory. For vernacular Chinese school they added the Chinese subject same to the Indian vernacular school they added Tamil subject. For the normal Malaysian school they added the Arabic subject as the foreign language subject.
I get this feeling of 'guessing' from another form of Chinese because I have made some effort to fully acquire Traditional Chinese while growing up with Simplified Chinese. I can say that there is a common misconception among us Chinese that people naturally 'know' the other form, but in fact they, including myself, can't even write a full sentence in another form without actually learning it. All they can do is guess at some meaning through some basic rules of character transformation, such as that of 言部、金部, which is far from being good at it. But of course the transition between two forms of characters is much easier than learning a whole new language. By the way, I'm really curious about how Koreans learn Chinese characters back then. What is your experience of 漢字混用? Did you learn from Classical Chinese works like Japanese students do?
big thanks for sharing the Chinese perspective 👍 interesting to know switching is not natural even for Chinese ppl for Koreans studying Chinese characters it's more of learning the roots of words (like 음식 is 飲食), instead of going into deep Chinese literature; I just learned the characters, not the language Although you get excited as a kid when you become able to recognize Chinese characters from 三國志 cartoons or movies 😁
I am decent in Japanese (got N2 certificate) trying to learn a little chinese for fun and I have the exact same problem. What makes simplified characters actually harder than traditional one is lack of radicals that give you a clue to its meaning. I know 聴 means to listen in Japanese cause of the ear radical 耳 but in 简体字, it's 听 which gives me zero clue on its meaning, the 口 radical doesn't help since other characters have it too.
Well I wanna share my language journey. I am a native Spanish speaker from Argentina. I have been learning English for ten years now (I finished the course and now I can watch a full Tv show without having to stop for every word I don't know. I am pretty sure about my skills). I started learning Italian (it is a Latin related language) thinking about how easy it would be😂😂😂😂.. It has 50% of "false friends" and is hard when you are familiar with the meaning of a word in Spanish and then you learn that the same or almost the same word has an entirely different meaning. Now, I keep learning some italian now and then with Duolingo. But I started Chinesse and I can remember better a Chinese character than an Italian word. Spanish/Portuguese and Italian are very close to each other. French and romanian feels kind of learning a complete different language.
As someone who grew up in a Simplified Chinese environment in China, I have no difficulty reading books in Traditional Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but I can’t write all the Traditional Chinese characters correctly.
@ When I was young, China couldn’t import licensed Japanese manga, so if I wanted to read manga, I could only read pirated versions translated in Hong Kong and Taiwan.I think this is an important reason. Besides, I feel that Traditional Chinese is also used quite a lot in China. For example, on advertisement signs, various decorations, during the Lunar New Year, and even my university’s name is in Traditional Chinese.
Haha "nobody cares about you" 😂 I am overseas Chinese who learnt traditional first and now my brain just freezes when I see simplified. I dont use chinese often enough in my daily life (reading/writing) so I am no fluent at all but I always recognise which is which even if i don't know what the word is. But my brain is too lazy to try to figure out the simplified words 😂
The traditional form is still used to a limited extent in China today for calligraphy, art, or materials related to history or Classical Chinese. In addition, various simplified forms (簡筆、減筆、省文) are in informal use outside China, which is derive from the old tradition of writing in a simplified way in everyday life and do not fully correspond to the national standard of Simplified Chinese in China.
Granted it is much easier to learn simplified while knowing traditional than vice versa
oh true, haven't thought of that part
@@icebreakLC why not learn Traditional Chinese from Taiwan 🇹🇼? They speak Mandarin
I just try to learn both at the same time. The textbooks I use usually contain both anyway.
wow textbook contains both? is it because of old literature pieces?
@@icebreakLC No, they usually just give the simplified version in parenthesis or would give both versions of the same sentence/text side by side or on the bottom. Are you learning Mandarin Chinese through Korean or English? I'm from the states so a lot of the textbooks here tend to include both traditional and simplified since a lot of the Mandarin speakers here are from Taiwan.
Mandarin textbook I'm using is in Korean and only has simplified but I use dictionary to check traditional version
@@icebreakLC That's cool, I imagine it would be easier to learn vocabulary through Korean instead of English because at least some of the words sound similar.
I'm more comfortable with Traditional writing even though I learned simplified writing back in school (Malaysia). I was exposed to both. Simplified writing does have a problem, even I got confused despite the characters being easier to write, sometimes it felt like I was missing something.
Later, I searched out for Taiwanese sources and have since converted full to using Traditional writing, it's strange because it's supposed to be harder but it turned out easier to remember.
That said, knowing both is good, because you'll encounter both. I'd argue that knowing Traditional writing first is better, it's a very good foundation. Simplified writing used to be personal shortcuts being standardised only (with some new creations too), I've seen people mixing the two in handwriting.
Thanks for sharing! Was learning Chinese(Simplified) in Malaysia one of your foreign language subjects? What are the mandatory/optional foreign language subjects taught in school in Malaysia?
@@icebreakLC Malay and English is compulsory. For vernacular Chinese school they added the Chinese subject same to the Indian vernacular school they added Tamil subject. For the normal Malaysian school they added the Arabic subject as the foreign language subject.
Interesting to know Koreans learned Hanzi in school. I’m learning simplified Hanzi now 😄
jiayou!
I get this feeling of 'guessing' from another form of Chinese because I have made some effort to fully acquire Traditional Chinese while growing up with Simplified Chinese. I can say that there is a common misconception among us Chinese that people naturally 'know' the other form, but in fact they, including myself, can't even write a full sentence in another form without actually learning it. All they can do is guess at some meaning through some basic rules of character transformation, such as that of 言部、金部, which is far from being good at it. But of course the transition between two forms of characters is much easier than learning a whole new language.
By the way, I'm really curious about how Koreans learn Chinese characters back then. What is your experience of 漢字混用? Did you learn from Classical Chinese works like Japanese students do?
big thanks for sharing the Chinese perspective 👍 interesting to know switching is not natural even for Chinese ppl
for Koreans studying Chinese characters it's more of learning the roots of words (like 음식 is 飲食), instead of going into deep Chinese literature; I just learned the characters, not the language
Although you get excited as a kid when you become able to recognize Chinese characters from 三國志 cartoons or movies 😁
Simplify Chinese character is easier.all interconnected, just like abc. E.g. 木 interconnected with 林，森，禁梦焚婪楚梵，麻摩摩麾磨，琳琅满目。。
I am decent in Japanese (got N2 certificate) trying to learn a little chinese for fun and I have the exact same problem. What makes simplified characters actually harder than traditional one is lack of radicals that give you a clue to its meaning. I know 聴 means to listen in Japanese cause of the ear radical 耳 but in 简体字, it's 听 which gives me zero clue on its meaning, the 口 radical doesn't help since other characters have it too.
exactly! Japanese kanji is also a separate genre.
聴/听 is a good example. My favorite is 働 where it's just made up 😂
Well I wanna share my language journey. I am a native Spanish speaker from Argentina. I have been learning English for ten years now (I finished the course and now I can watch a full Tv show without having to stop for every word I don't know. I am pretty sure about my skills). I started learning Italian (it is a Latin related language) thinking about how easy it would be😂😂😂😂.. It has 50% of "false friends" and is hard when you are familiar with the meaning of a word in Spanish and then you learn that the same or almost the same word has an entirely different meaning.
Now, I keep learning some italian now and then with Duolingo. But I started Chinesse and I can remember better a Chinese character than an Italian word.
Spanish/Portuguese and Italian are very close to each other. French and romanian feels kind of learning a complete different language.
ooooh, didn't know Spanish and Italian had similar thing going on. "false friends" is a very good way to put it.
@icebreakLC French-Spanish-portuguese-romanian and Italian come from Latin. Even English has 30% of Latin.
They only made things more complicated creating new characters.
chinese no problem shifting both, Singaporeans no problem using both together
oh wow, didn't know that also applies to people in Singapore
and malaysia chinese too
As someone who grew up in a Simplified Chinese environment in China, I have no difficulty reading books in Traditional Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but I can’t write all the Traditional Chinese characters correctly.
did you get used to traditional characters in movies and books? I'm curious how you can read them naturally
@ When I was young, China couldn’t import licensed Japanese manga, so if I wanted to read manga, I could only read pirated versions translated in Hong Kong and Taiwan.I think this is an important reason. Besides, I feel that Traditional Chinese is also used quite a lot in China. For example, on advertisement signs, various decorations, during the Lunar New Year, and even my university’s name is in Traditional Chinese.
the pirated manga part is really interesting
Just learn mandarin from Taiwan. I think they still use traditional.
Yes, they use Traditional Chinese 🇹🇼
yep I just came back from Taiwan and there traditional characters were all over the place!
Haha "nobody cares about you" 😂
I am overseas Chinese who learnt traditional first and now my brain just freezes when I see simplified. I dont use chinese often enough in my daily life (reading/writing) so I am no fluent at all but I always recognise which is which even if i don't know what the word is. But my brain is too lazy to try to figure out the simplified words 😂
haha you have same problem as mine!
The more confusing part was when I went to China, I have seen them use both... 🤔...🤷
that's interesting. I guess in old/historical buildings?
@@icebreakLC Yup, and in some restaurants.
The traditional form is still used to a limited extent in China today for calligraphy, art, or materials related to history or Classical Chinese. In addition, various simplified forms (簡筆、減筆、省文) are in informal use outside China, which is derive from the old tradition of writing in a simplified way in everyday life and do not fully correspond to the national standard of Simplified Chinese in China.
马 is not any easier to read than 馬. It is a bit faster to write.
😁