Should schools start teaching traditional characters again?

[SelfServeFive]

Handwrite simplified but read and type traditional. Many distinct characters that have been merged into one through simplification. This reduces the language's effectiveness by creating ambiguity.

 

[Yizhi]

hahaha, i know buddy, i was just joking with you. From reading your posts for a while now, you come across a very learned individual , just that i have quite a few engineer friends , and they have a very confident attitude, much like yours. Also, you know about the jokes about engineer / physicist nature right? LOL. (please don't take it personally, just for laughs)....


this is how an engineer flirts with a girl...

View attachment 207148

bro @cnleio --- i know you're like this...hahahahaha!

good one!

 

[kankan326]

Some say traditional characters look more beautiful in writing. But is "beautiful" the most important purpose for a writing system? 小篆 look better than traditional characters.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

hahaha, i know buddy, i was just joking with you. From reading your posts for a while now, you come across a very learned individual , just that i have quite a few engineer friends , and they have a very confident attitude, much like yours. Also, you know about the jokes about engineer / physicist nature right? LOL. (please don't take it personally, just for laughs)....


this is how an engineer flirts with a girl...

View attachment 207148

bro @cnleio --- i know you're like this...hahahahaha!

lol you have no idea how much I'm annoyed by typical physics/engineers people. I actually think it it is a blessing in disguise that I got rejected from pure physics departments, and ended up in chemical physics doing interdisciplinary materials physics. I realized just how much I don't have in common with the types that are attracted to the physics field. There are alot of awkward nerds and even scary extremists in this field who are very intelligent, but use it in the worst ways.

Handwrite simplified but read and type traditional. Many distinct characters that have been merged into one through simplification. This reduces the language's effectiveness by creating ambiguity.

Context dispels that.

 

[Keel]

should US and UK, and all english speaking countries sit down to discuss out an standard english?

tell me which one is more traditional?
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Calligraphy is fancy or artsy writing so it is not counted

Simplified characters have their great merits. Hereunder are some examples（simplified v traditional）:

灭 v 滅
叶 v 葉
临 v 臨
众 v 眾
龟 v 龜
龙 v 龍
战舰 v 戰艦
体 v 體
阴阳 v 陰陽
铁 v 鐵
图 v 圖
医学 v 醫學
惊 v 驚
护 v 護
虑 v 慮
尘 v 塵
无礼 v 無禮
书画 v 書畫
国 v 國
汉 v 漢

I have no problem in retaining the traditional form like in the following examples because the "beauty and core meaning/gist " of making the characters have lost due to simplication:

爱 v 愛
亲 v 親
华 v 華
马 v 馬

also it is an excellent suggestion for having a commonly recognised system once and for all

We need an initiative and interested parties, be they prime or second language users or scholars around the world should be invited to participate in the project. China has the time, people and other resources to organise and invest money into this very meaningful endeavour

Let's be open and get a consensus so when the final decision is made, then there will only be ONE writing system for Chinese learners across the world

Key and other important participants are:

China mainland, Taiwan, Singapore, Hongkong, Macau, Malaysia, both Koreas, Japan, Thailand, Mongolia

Pakistan, S Lanka, Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia, Argentina, Mexico. US. UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ukraine, members of BRICS and SCO, other members of ASEAN and many M East, S Am, EU and African friends

Handpainted overglaze porcelain vase

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Nope, the simplified characters are much better, and the oracle bones are even more traditional, so why not revert it back to the oracle bones?

 

[Pangu]

The evolved simplified characters is to make learning easier, & IMO really does take less time to write a letter manually, lol. So I'm fine with it. More pressing matters are the proliferation of mutated internet & sms language style, & the lack of manual writing due to the computer & mobile phone.

 

[dlclong]

The traditional Jiaguwen, is the real traditional

 

[Lux de Veritas]

The traditional Jiaguwen, is the real traditionalView attachment 207249 View attachment 207250

The evolved simplified characters is to make learning easier, & IMO really does take less time to write a letter manually, lol. So I'm fine with it. More pressing matters are the proliferation of mutated internet & sms language style, & the lack of manual writing due to the computer...

The merits of traditional Chinese character is that it is the only system that all East Asian accept, and according to the survey in this thread, most East Asian accept.

China can invent her own system, and meanwhile Taiwan and HK are using the other. Result is -- breaking up of East Asian system.

If there is no unification of writing system, 1000 years later Taiwan will produce their own script completely incomprehensible by PRC, so will Japan and Korea.

Then East Asia will move apart.

Right now no one is understanding Vietnamese Roman script and Vietnam has since using Anglicize lexicon. You want that to happen?

Unless all the rest agree on simplified system, then to unified East Asian writing system, its better to go traditional.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

aesthetically i prefer traditional ones.

Same. The character in my avatar is a primary example of a traditional character that looks much better than the simplified version.

HOWEVER I think Simplified characters are much more efficient, and that matters a lot.

Efficiency is important. Overall I prefer Simplified characters for that reason.

 

[hans]

The east Asia use Chinese because of China is the leader of Asia civilization for 2000 years..
Now China is returning to the leading position.
I guess Asia countries will soon transfer to simplified Chinese..
Language is a tool to communicate..
It is very important that everybody can learn it easily..
traditional Chinese is too complicated .

The merits of traditional Chinese character is that it is the only system that all East Asian accept, and according to the survey in this thread, most East Asian accept.

China can invent her own system, and meanwhile Taiwan and HK are using the other. Result is -- breaking up of East Asian system.

If there is no unification of writing system, 1000 years later Taiwan will produce their own script completely incomprehensible by PRC, so will Japan and Korea.

Then East Asia will move apart.

Right now no one is understanding Vietnamese Roman script and Vietnam has since using Anglicize lexicon. You want that to happen?

Unless all the rest agree on simplified system, then to unified East Asian writing system, its better to go traditional.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

The east Asia use Chinese because of China is the leader of Asia civilization for 2000 years..
Now China is returning to the leading position.
I guess Asia countries will soon transfer to simplified Chinese..
Language is a tool to communicate..
It is very important that everybody can learn it easily..
traditional Chinese is too complicated .

This is ridiculous. The Serbian and Greek do not even want to dump their script in favor of latin, never mind how strong or how rich western europe/USA are.

 

[kankan326]

This is ridiculous. The Serbian and Greek do not even want to dump their script in favor of latin, never mind how strong or how rich western europe/USA are.

Basically Japanese and Korean are totally different languages than Chinese language. I mean Chinese characters only fit for Chinese language. I won't be surprised if some day Japan and Korea completely abandon Chinese characters.

 

[Al Bhatti]

I have read somewhere that an average Chinese who finishes college or university knows about 4000-5000 characters.

Out of this what percentage of characters are same in both simplified and traditional form?

 

[AndrewJin]

I learned traditional Chinese calligraphy from 5-year-old to 14-year-old, a 2-hour lesson every weekend, at least one-hour exercise every single day.
Honestly speaking, traditional Chinese is beautiful aesthetically, especially in calligraphy. (But not in printed books, like messy codes)
But, whilst I was exercising using the ancient copybook of calligraphy, I found a lot of characters in simplified forms.
Remember, characters are always in the dynamic evolution, there is no way turning back.

I have read somewhere that an average Chinese who finishes college or university knows about 4000-5000 characters.

Out of this what percentage of characters are same in both simplified and traditional form?

This poem, written 1300 years ago, any 6-year-old Chinese kid can recite it.
simplified ////// traditional
《登鹳雀楼》by王之涣 /////////《登鸛雀樓》 by王之渙
白日依山尽,黄河入海流。 /// 白日依山盡，黃河入海流。
欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。/// 欲窮千里目，更上一層樓。
All the simplified forms can by found in ancient calligraphy copybooks.
Reading traditional Chinese is far enough.
btw, normally we don't have Chinese lessons in college. If we read novels, 4000-5000 is not enough. If calculating all characters one can understand but cannot write, I think the number is at least 6000.