Simplified or traditional Chinese?

Traditional. All the way.

The strokes are tougher, but that is where the real essence of Chinese words are. In each single friggin' stroke.

Why mainlanders wanted to butcher their own language, I don't know.

They read the same, they have the same meaning, they have same pronunciations, oh wait, no, simplified also simplified the pronunciations, therefore butchering the language even further.

So yeah, unless you want to skew your mastery of Chinese language into something of a riff raft, I do recommend you to go with the traditional ones. Its also easier to switch to simplified later.

 

Yeah, I believe in the 50s the simplification of characters occurred, and about 500 ish characters were changed from its traditional form. And before that time period, mandarin wasn't taught as a standard so it wouldn't be surprising for 60+ year olds to not know mandarin.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. I think I'll just learn both but write in simplified since it's quicker, as much as it pains me for some characters because I'm so used to Japanese Kanji.

 

Learn Simplified, much easier for mainland people to understand you. Less time taking than Traditional, and well both Chinese won't help you a bit in Japanese.
Like I had said in past post, both are different languages...so yeah.
Torture yourself, by learning both writing systems, and both languages. Then TL stuff for us

 

Simplified Chinese was created in order to make education easier for the masses. Around the same period of time, Mandarin was also voted to be the official dialect in China, and there is no such thing as "simplified pronunciations".

 

The fives and fours. Not something official but permeated into the simplification.

 

It doesn't really matter, but simplified is easier to learn, but traditional is easier to understand, i.e from pictogram form. Doesn't really matter but you might be able to learn simplified faster. BTW the main reason Chinese people use simplified is to write faster in essays... so your choice!

 

never heard of simplified pronunciations, any examples please?

 

In Malaysia, we are taught traditional chinese for those who choose to learn Chinese. There doesn't seem to be any news about that changing soon.

 

Whoa what??
I grew up in Sarawak and they taught simplified Chinese there

 

Maybe it's just regional? In the Peninsular, it's always traditional. Malaysians always said Peninsular & Sabah Sarawak anyhow, as if we're not even the same country. Meh. I blame it on the flaws within our constitution.

 

Rofl, yeah I hear stuff like that before.
East and West Malaysia are rather different.... Though East Malaysia is like, an island separate from the world so yeah.
The education is different too. I hear the Chinese education in the West is so much tougher.

 

Don't know it's tougher here, since I don't any personal experience to compare with. But back in school, there were many girls who wanted to take Chinese (Mandarin) for SPM, but our seniors suggested us not to. They said unless you're very good, you will never get an A and thus ruin your prospect for university unless you add like two other subjects to make 10A into 11A 1B. I blame it on Najib back when he was still the education minister. Because of his 'reform', 10 years of effort went down the drain. I heard some of the girls even attempted suicide for not getting full As after I graduated. My year was the first year his 'academics only' education reform came into place. Made me wish I was born a year earlier.

Anyway, I recommend learning traditional, considering that many parts of the world still use traditional officially.

 

Yes, chinese is a nightmare.... I stopped taking it after form 3, it was so hard. I was at the bottom of my class for chinese too ; _ ;

The citizens suffer every time the higher ups make a new decision in Malaysia.

Learning traditional is probably better... you should be able to learn and write simplified chinese easier after learning traditional.

 

I must disagree... Abasic knowledge of Chinese character of either simplified or traditional really help somewhat when reading Kanji, as numerous Chinese terms were incorporated wholesale to Japanese language as kango (漢語), this was so prevalent that almost 60% words in the dictionary was loanwords from Chinese while only 18% used in normal words.

For example, let's take a look on the Chinese version poem of Invictus: (left is traditional, right is simplified)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
覆我周身乃暗夜， / 覆我周身乃暗夜，
四極昏黑如幽壑。 / 四极昏黑如幽壑。
各方神祇皆感謝， / 各方神祇皆感谢，
為我不屈之魂魄。 / 为我不屈之魂魄。

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
身陷險惡困境中，/身陷险恶困境中，
我不皺眉不叫喊。/我不皱眉不叫喊。
命運棒打威嚇中，/命运棒打威吓中，
頭破血流卻昂然。/头破血流却昂然。

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
此處怒與淚之上，/此处怒与泪之上，
恐怖陰影暗伏圍，/恐怖阴影暗伏围，
歲月恐嚇之險象，/岁月恐吓之险象，
我將無懼且無畏。/我将无惧且无畏。

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
無視天國門多窄，/无视天国门多窄，
不懼冊載之罰懲，/不惧册载之罚惩，
我乃命運之主宰，/我乃命运之主宰，
我乃靈魂之統領。/我乃灵魂之统领。

Okay, the poem lines are cool, and most of the words make some sense and readable in Japanese. But let's take a look on several words:
暗夜 = Chinese: ànyè, Japanese : anya. Meaning all the same: A dark/late night
感謝 = Chinese: gǎnxiè, Japanese: kansha. Means the same: Gratitude. Please note that Japanese didn't simplified the 謝
魂魄 = Chinese: húnpò. Japanese: konpaku. Means the same: Soul.
命運= Chinese: mìngyùn. Japanese: meiun. Means the same: Fate or destiny/ although Japanese add the sense of impending doom/fate to die. Also Japanese didn't simplified the 運 . If you reverse to unmei, 運命. Then, it will means fate in general term.
The same with 威嚇 (threat/intimidation), 昂然 (proud), 恐怖 (fear/dread), 陰影 (gloom/shadow), 無視 (ignore), 主宰 (ruler/someone who supervise). It's worthy to note, that this words are rather 'fancy words' in Japanese (in English this would be those Latin/Greek derived words, f.e. rather than bottomless we use abyssal, rather than shapeless we used amorphous). You won't usually encounter them in conversation, but might see them in a novel (usually with furigana perched on top of them).

頭 = is head, no matter what the language is...
天 = is sky, no matter what the language is...
不 = is not, no matter what the language is...
中 = is middle, no matter what the language is...
門 = is gate/entrance, no matter what the language is...

淚 and 泪 = Chinese: lèi, Japanese: namida. A word you often encounter in songs... (at least the karaoke my mother loves to sing and those sad anime ending songs). In this case, Japanese use the simplified version rather than the traditional version.
國 and 国 = Chinese: guó, Japanese: kuni/koku. Japanese use the simplified version.

黑 and 黒 = In this case, Japanese simplified the letter although the Chinese didn't. But you can see the similarity.

Generally there were 6 kind of simplification:
1. No simplification in both languages : like 潟
2. Same simplification in both languages : like 淚 --> 泪
3. Simplified in Chinese only : like 運 --> 运 but only in Chinese, Japanese use the traditional version
4. Simplified in Japanese only : like the aforementioned 黑 and 黒
5. Different simplifications in Chinese and Japanese : Like 澤 is 泽 in Chinese but 沢 in Japanese, or 龍 is 竜 in Japanese but 龙 in Chinese.
6. Traditional in Chinese only : like 溫 which is 温 in Chinese, but Japanese had used 温 since the beginning (although they also used 溫 as a variant writing).
7. Semi-Simplified in Japanese : like 關 is 关 in Chinese, which is used by Japanese as 関
(yes 6. No simplification is not counted)

End of the words: Knowing Chinese do help you (a bit) in reading Japanese Kanji (at the very least you might infer some of the meaning).

 

Nice. I had this in mind, and I hope to get into some classical Japanese in the future so this will probably help a lot? Lol

 

Take the word "pan" (for plate). How is it written, all four "tones" ? (that pin yin?) You'll see that there are different ways and therefore ideological differences when writing all "pan" in all tones in both traditional and simplified sense.
IIRC there are 5 tones, but Mainland China is pushing for 4 tones instead. All in the name of simplification. Added with the item above mentioned, the evolution of the words takes a drastic "fork" (that's how I would put it), while it does make it easier for a lot of people to learn Mandarin, it does in a way or two, kills the lineage and history that's embedded in the words that's being simplified.

Blame Dong Zhong for it. They just can't get their act right. They're too damned political for their own good. However, at least, the Sarawakian government did some great things about Chinese education (for State level purposes). I don't see how the "differences" can be reconcialated unless there are some massive political changes, and that also includes for the xenophobic DongZhong too.

 

seeing your reply I can only smh at the fact you didn't read my First Post, that explained basically that in a brief way. But still thanks for a detailed explanation as it'd help OP.

 

Mandarin was standard among the majority of the chinese population. Only Hong Kong and a few other cities nearby used cantonese.

 

What is many parts of the world? China uses simplified officially.

 

Mandarin was not standard prior to the revolution. It was only the dialect that was understood by the most amount of people at the time, and therefore chosen as the national standard. I'm not sure how many you consider as "a few" but imo a large extent of SE China uses Cantonese, such as Guangdong and Guangxi

Everywhere else except Mainland China such as HK, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and overseas Chinese (even here in the US).