he introduction of simplified characters. As such, traditional Chinese tends to be used in the US.
Exploring the Simplified Chinese Writing System
Simplified Chinese altered the traditional Chinese language writing form in several ways. The change from traditional to simplified Chinese was intended to boost literacy levels by making the language easier to learn, so the changes went deeper than simply reducing the number of character strokes.
We provided an example of this above when talking about the reduction of variant characters with the same pronunciation to a single character. This was also the case with variant characters that had identical meanings (such as ‘sofa’ and ‘settee’ in English).
Another form of simplification was the application of regular rules to certain characters. This meant the introduction of a standardised, simplified version of a particular component into all characters that contained that component.
The combined result of reducing the strokes in such a large swathe of characters with these other forms of simplification was a notable reduction in the number of words that language learners needed to master. As at June 2013, the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisted of 8,105 simplified and unchanged characters.
A Word on Chinese Dialects and Characters
If you’re in the market for Chinese translation services, there’s also the question of which dialect of Chinese you need. China is home to 297 living languages. The most commonly spoken of these is Mandarin, which some 70% of China’s population speak.
Cantonese is the second most spoken Chinese dialect and is an official language in both Hong Kong and Macau (alongside English in the former and Portuguese in the latter).
Both Mandarin and Cantonese can be written in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters.
Which One Should You Use and Learn?
Are you struggling with the whole traditional Chinese vs simplified Chinese question when it comes to which form of the language to use? Or even to learn? If so, don’t worry, you’re not alone! Chinese is known for being one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn and decisions such as this make it seem even more complicated (incidentally, you can click the link below to discover the other languages that English speakers may struggle to pick up).
Learning Traditional Chinese Characters Vs Simplified Characters
Really, the choice of which form of Chinese characters to use or learn will come down to a range of factors that are personal to you. If you’re looking to use Chinese in a business context then you will need to consider the territory where you plan to do business and which form of the language they use there.
If you’re learning Chinese for personal use in a particular country or region then the same still applies. On the other hand, if you’re learning Chinese simply due to a love of the language, without fixed plans about where and how to use it, simplified Chinese will be the easiest version of the language to pick up.
Read more: What Is the Hardest Language to Learn?
How Easy Is it to Learn Simplified Chinese Vs Traditional Chinese?
The Foreign Service Institute ranks both Mandarin and Cantonese as Category V languages, meaning that they are among the hardest languages for English speakers to learn, requiring some 2,200 hours of study to achieve proficiency in speaking and reading. By way of comparison, Category I languages such as Spanish and French take as little as 575 hours to achieve the same degree of proficiency. For more on some of the easiest languages to learn, click the link below.
As such, you’ve already got quite a challenge ahead of you in terms of mastering Chinese. Should you really be making that challenge harder by learning the traditional Chinese characters instead of the simplified ones?
Switching from simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese means more time studying. If you opt to learn traditional Chinese, you will need to master more complex characters and more of characters overall. Neither is particularly easy for English-speakers to lear