Below we will address some common questions and confusions that learners encounter when they first start learning mandarin.
Originally, the Chinese writing system evolved from pictographic representations of things. For example, here is the evolution of the character for fish:
Images taken from the WeHanzi App.
As you can see, it started off looking like a picture of a fish! But over thousands of years, it evolved to become more symbolic.
Part of the reason for this change is that over time, different emperors wanted to simplify the writing system and make it more consistent. In 1956 the Chinese government decided to make a further iteration to the writing system. They made a number of simplifications to try to make writing more consistent and practical for the modern world.
Here are the main ways simplification changes the characters:
Reduce the number of strokes
體 → 体 (tǐ, body)
Replace complicated components with simpler ones
語 → 语 (yǔ, language) — 言 → 讠
Use shorthand forms. Making it easier to write
書 → 书 (shū, book)
Standardise variant forms. Variants are where multiple different characters represent the same meaning and pronunciation
後 → 后 (hòu, after)
Phonetic substitution. In Chinese, sometimes one component gives the character its pronunciation. Sometimes this component is replaced with a simpler component with the same sound.
燈 → 灯 (dēng, lamp)
Merging multiple traditional characters into one simplified character
麵 (miàn, noodles) and 面 (miàn, face) → 面
| HSK Level | Cases where Simplified and Traditional are different | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 65 / 150 | 43 |
| 2 | 54 / 146 | 53 |
| 3 | 159 / 298 | 53 |
| 4 | 331 / 597 | 55 |
| 5 | 746 / 1299 | 57 |
| 6 | 1507 / 2498 | 60 |
This may seem a lot but in many cases, the difference is small for example:
貝 -> 见
兒 -> 儿
學 -> 学
In these cases, the component is easily recognizable.
If you specifically want to visit or live in a country for example, China or Macau then it would make sense to learn the script that is most commonly used.
China, Singapore -> Simplified
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau -> Traditional
If you want to be able to read Japanese, then the Japanese Kanji are more closely related to the Traditional characters.
If you are interested in history and ancient Chinese then it’s better to learn the Traditional characters because they are closer to the ancient forms.
Bear in mind the Traditional characters are slightly harder to learn because they are more complex. But if you learn the Traditional characters first, it’s easier to then learn the Simplified characters. Starting with Simplified then moving to Traditional would be more difficult.
You can definitely learn both. In many cases, the differences are small and it’s not much harder to learn both initially than just learning one.
The WeHanzi app – lessons and word lists include both Simplified and Traditional scripts and allow you to learn both.
