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As travelling is one of my passions, I have set myself a task. I want to learn how to read a write traditional Chinese as I want to live in Hong Kong at some point of my life. Out of the 4,000 characters I’m only know about 10 or so but it’s a start. I do have one question though, in Hong Kong, they speak Cantonese and read in traditional. Is there anybody with knowledge of what type of Chinese (e.g mandarin etc.) would be the most beneficial to be proficient in? I’d love to be a translator and once I have finished learning Greek I can move onto learning Chinese full time. One more question, the whole simplified vs. traditional Chinese dilemma… As previously mentioned, I am learning traditional at the moment but need some clarification as to which would be better to learn (in reference to hireabilty etc.) Would be very thankful if anyone has any information for me, Thanks! -Jamie

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  1. I think any chinese would work 2) ???
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I am pretty sure each is a type of dialect and have some differences. Although 65% of traditional and simplified writing is the same, I’d rather learn the first which will have more use to me.

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Mandarin and Cantonese… Hmm… If you’re going to learn Mandarin, you’ll have better supports, like better learning materials, better Romanized system (Pinyin, for instance)… After all, Mandarin is the official language in China, while Cantonese is only spoken in Guangdong province and Hongkong, and is being taken over by Mandarin. Traditional vs Simplified… Well… Before the Simplified Chinese was developed, 80% of Chinese population were illiterate. The Traditional Chinese is really mind fu–ing and is only used in old/ancient documents and places (pagodas, shrines…) and is difficult to learn. It’s a nice way to train your brain, but personally, I think it’s no use. Nowadays, no one use them in mordern documents anymore. If you work with computers, I recommend Simplified Chinese, since the display is better when using one. But if you wanna read signs at ancient tourist places, you will have to learn Traditional Chinese (to understand them, however, is another problem). P.S. Basically, the two languages (Cantonese and Mandarin) use the same writing system, only the pronounciations (as well as something else, such as slangs and some grammar) are different.

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Thanks! I did some reading and in regards to Hong Kong, they show no signs of moving to simplified… Maybe I should learn traditional first and then simplified? aahhh… I agree on the learning mandarin font and supports, so much more material to use. I’m just looking around to see what I should learn first as obviously, it’s going to take a while… The good thing is though, you can get by with 1,000 characters or so (if you learn the most commonly used 1,000). Obviously, the process itself will take a bit longer as I’m learning Greek at the same time but, maybe in about 2 and half years or so I’ll know a significant number of characters… It’s just pretty mean (lol), Chinese in itself is hard and then they have these whole different dialects, writing styles and stuff:frowning:

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I agree:slight_smile:Chinese is fun to learn (though I’ve never tried to learned it, maybe in the future I will lol), though it’s so difficult. According to a source ( link here ), Hong Kong people speak in Cantonese and write in Traditional Chinese. And Mainland Chinese speak in Mandarin, write in Simplified Chinese. It’s your choice and it depends on your purpose, Jamie:slight_smile:If I plan to learn Chinese, I’ll choose Mandarin (and Simplified), because mostly I’ll work with computers XD

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Yeah, I have a few friends in HK and was speaking to one of them about it… I was learning traditional w/ mandarin pronunciation for about 2 weeks and then was informed that they speak Cantonese ://// So learning pronunciations differently… Don’t know, I definitely want to go to university abroad but not sure whether HK, Canada or US yet

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Ah, that’s another level XD (PmE)

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What does PmE mean?

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Pardon my English:slight_smile:I made that up XD Edit: Ahhhhh… Actually it is in some dictionaries. I’ve just looked it up:stuck_out_tongue:

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Oh hahaha I see you using it around and I felt stupid for not knowing what it meant, lol

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Ah, I have the habit of making up phrases and words. My fault my fault *bows*:stuck_out_tongue:

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Matthew, the trend setter

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Thanks for that XD Wonder if they can make me a badge about that lol

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haha

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wait, I may be misunderstanding here, but traditional Chinese has 4,000 characters? D:

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Actually, more than 4,000 >:smiley:

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Fuck that shit D: ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat.

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I do xD

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Lol