Bilingual Q&A 11: Should you learn traditional Chinese or simplified Chinese?
Q: I have decided to let my children learn Traditional Chinese because I myself learned Traditional Chinese and am not familiar with Simplified Chinese, so I am afraid that I will teach it wrong. However, many schools abroad currently teach Simplified Chinese. I plan for my children to learn Simplified Chinese in the future. Is this decision right?
A: Compared with traditional Chinese characters, the advantage of simplified Chinese characters is that many Chinese characters have fewer strokes, which directly reduces the writing time. At the same time, now that "China" has become a world power, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China. Naturally, most schools overseas have chosen simplified Chinese characters. Some parents still prefer to teach traditional Chinese characters because there are more strokes or parts in the text. Not only is the font more beautiful, And some words better reflect the meaning of the text itself.
Literacy:
There is actually no difference between children's recognition of traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters, because children's recognition of characters absorbs a character as a whole (strictly speaking, it is easier to recognize traditional Chinese characters, because traditional Chinese characters have more strokes and provide more information, which is more beneficial to character recognition). Usually parents will teach their children traditional Chinese or simplified Chinese according to what they have learned, which is a natural choice. In the process of reading and literacy, your child may see both traditional and simplified characters, because both exist in real life. Therefore, try to allow children to interact with them naturally, and encourage them to try to "guess" the traditional and simplified fonts that appear in books or in the environment. Learning to recognize them is more appropriate than resisting and rejecting them.
Of course, when teaching children to read and read, it is best to be consistent and choose all traditional Chinese books or all simplified Chinese books, so as to reduce their troubles. However, if in life, a child accidentally chooses a traditional or simplified storybook that is not what he has learned, parents should encourage him to try reading. When a child grows up and has established the ability to read independently, as long as he has the motivation, it is usually not difficult to read reading materials that switch between traditional and simplified Chinese. Whether it is an adult or a child, after reading continuously for a period of time, they will pass it smoothly without even realizing it. In this "transitional" stage, one can read reading materials in any font at will.
In terms of writing:
Of course, parents who know simplified Chinese characters teach simplified Chinese, and those who know traditional Chinese characters teach traditional Chinese, because this is to avoid teaching mistakes and making corrections more troublesome.
If the fonts taught in school are not the same as those taught by parents, it is actually not a problem. Just tell your children directly what fonts you are learning, and you can even learn different fonts with your children.
In the future world, we won’t need to predict what fonts children will use. If you use a computer to write, you can choose between traditional and simplified Chinese, or you can switch between them by pressing a key. Being able to convert between traditional and simplified handwriting definitely requires practice and cannot be accomplished in a short time. My understanding is that for some standard Chinese language tests, both traditional and simplified Chinese are accepted.
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