Since a month I've begun my studies of the Chinese language. Lately we were discussing the use of Simplified characters.
I am aware Taiwan rejects these changes made to the script by Mao, but I wonder how many Chinese (mainland) feel about this.

For educational purpose and to help combat illiteracy I can make my peace with simplified (it's also really hard to master the non-simplified characters when you're not surrounded by them every day, like I am).

Any other thoughts?

i can read both..but can't write traditional

You can stop calling it non-simplified. It's traditional.

I prefer traditional. I can read/write more traditional than simplified.

Besides, I think traditional characters look better.

I called it non-simplified on purpose to use a more "neutral" word. In my opinion "Traditional" and "Modern" might get some people aggrevated.

You make a good point. I've been hearing it as "Traditional" and "Simplified" that I never thought of it that way.

I know Simplified, but can read that many words in non-Simplified because the difference between them aren't great.

simplified looks more modern!

It doesn't help much about literacy. If you receive a proper education, traditional is just as easy to pick up. Simplified Chinese characters don't simply the learning process at all.

I can only write and read simplified....

I don't know. Both are fine, I suppose. But if you know traditional, then you can read the other version.

If I had a chance .

I would like to learn both !

Traditional is definitely the way to go. It's the script with which Chinese literature has been written for thousands of years. Dump traditional, you're dumping thousands of years of writing. I admit simplified is easier to remember how to write, but in terms of reading, they're both the same. People tend to recognize the shape of the characters, not the individual strokes, so simplifying strokes does nothing to help reading. Most people probably also agree that traditional simply just looks better, and simplified goes too far in combining multiple words into single simplified forms.

Hong Kong, of course, is simply just awesome. Instead of simplifying Chinese, they complficated Chinese, by adding even more characters to their vocabulary. 有冇人明白香港字呀?

^I've never seen any, would you post some?

Take a look here.
http://casa.51.net/anl/oncc/data/letters.htm

yeah. me too... simplified educated but able to read traditional.

Im learning using tradional characters and its a f'ing pain remembering the meaning of the more complex, or less commonly used characters. Or sometimes if I know the pinyin or pronunciation its hard remembering how to write the character for it. As im learning intermediate Mandarin, its becoming harder dealing with grammatical patterns and the assortment of characters that could have different meanings or uses(zhu,guo,de,yao,le,etc).

i'm learnin non-simplified now, and it's just so difficult!!

i can read/write both, but traditional is the way to go. as someone mentioned earlier, if you know tradtional, you won't even have to put in any effort to learn simplified, for you'll notice the resemblance in the characters fairly quickly

有﹐我明白。你係唔係香港人呀?

in most cases yes, but in some cases, the traditional and simplified are waaaaaaaaaaaay off

义,義

yup, those special ones will take some getting used to be, but 95% of the time, the resemblance is still noticeable. another example would be, 華 - 华

traditional

i disagree on that example, 华 is used so often, even though they're somewhat far apart, they're still recognizable, the simplified version i mean

i agree that 华 is used fairly often, but for people who learned traditional, besides that 十 on the bottom, i don't see how they could have made the connection; i got it the first time i saw it but that was only cuz it was used in context, like 中华

When I first saw 厂, I had no idea it was 廠. It's WAY too simplified. Seriously, simplified system is a disgrace.

yeah! simplified is a disgrace to the traditions and history of the chinese culture

That was funny.
The only use of simplified would be to speed up the writing process, but not by THAT much.
Also, it is NOT easier to learn, it's not like any language that uses the roman alphabet, you still have to memorize the characters. Today, we are using computers more and more so it wouldn't really matter in the future.

yupyup, so the PRC might as well revert back to traditional

Since both are still prominent in China, might as well learn traditional since it's easier to catch most simplified from traditional than the other way around.

I support using Traditional Chinese characters.
It preserves the basic Chinese script, which has been in use for thousands of years. (There were minor changes in writing words - but nothing big like PRC simplification)

Not only is simplified Chinese less aesthetically pleasing, it throws away many important features of Chinese.
For example, radicals - 部首 (bu4shou3)

The character for noodles - 麵 (mian4) 's bushou is 麥(mai4).
麥 mean wheat, and noodles are made from it.

In simplified Chinese, the 麥 is removed completely from 麵, and it becomes just 面.
It not only has lost its bushou - which is often helps suggest the meaning of the character - but it has also gained a whole lot of other meanings.
In traditional Chinese, 面 is a different character from 麵.

^沒錯沒錯

having simplified characters actually makes the chinese language harder to learn. w/out proper radicals, students are merely memorizing characters rather than really understanding the concept behind how the characters came to be.

Right...writting horse in traditional you can see how the character came to be. There are four dots in traditional rather than a line. The four dots represent the four legs of a horse. That's the concept of it Very important 2

Traditional. My mom and her brothers and sisters, cannot read much traditional characters. However I do agree the traditional way is the way to go. My CHinese textbook is made by taiwanese and Chinese Nationals working together. In the back of the book, it provides simplified characters and letters in SImplified so you can try to learn them, too.

Tradtional just seem more elegant the simplified.

唔係. 我係一個ABC, 但係我自己學中文. 所以我明白廣東話grammer,但係我個正中文冇噉好.

哈哈,我識打啲香港字, 所以我明白你講乜嘢。-cheers

他妈的.

i prefer 他媽的
traditional all da way

I agree with Du. The simplified system is a disgrace.

but is eaier to read...

It's not.

yes it is...

^It is not.

Take for example, the simplified character, "厂" - you have no idea what sound it makes.

Whereas if you have the traditional character, "廠" - you see that inside there is a "敞" which tells you its sound.

Fewer strokes doesn't make something easier to read.

Um, one question, do you think that madarin sounds better tahn Cantonese?

i think cantonese sounds better... becasue some song is better in cantonese than in mandarin..

Ok, that can relate back to this topic. If you like Cantonese, then why dont u like traditional writings.
Cuz i sometimes find the simplified Chinese very..................... useless.(meaning like not helping alot)

i like traditional chinese... when did i say i don't like it??
my dad only write chinese in traditional chinese..
but i don't know how to write traditional chinese...
now simplified is more useful... because that's what mainland china uses

Well, what i think(and it is merely what i think) is that is to assist the illiteracy of China faster

yeah.. but i do look forward china to change back to traditional... that probably impossible..