How To Study in Traditional Chinese

Studying the Chinese language is becoming increasingly popular due to China's increased importance in the world. There are two main scripts of the Chinese language: the traditional form and the simplified form. Although the simplified form is used more widely than the traditional, the traditional form offers many insights into the philosophy and history of the written Chinese language.

 

1

Obtain magazines, books or any written material to compare the traditional and simplified versions of Chinese. As a result of its complexity, many believe that traditional Chinese script is more beautiful than its simplified counterpart. However, the simplified version, which tends to use fewer strokes per character, is generally considered much easier to learn and is used more widely than the traditional version.

 

2

Enroll in a school that teaches the Chinese language with traditional characters. Areas of the world that still use the traditional Chinese character set include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The People's Republic of China currently uses the simplified version of the Chinese script. If you enroll in a school in Hong Kong or Macau, be aware that the main dialect of spoken Chinese is Cantonese, not Mandarin, which is the most widely spoken language in China.

 

3

Construct a system of character memorization. The traditional form of Chinese script is much more advanced than the simplified version, and hence finding a good methodology to memorization is even more crucial. Chinese characters are composed of one or more common "radicals," with each having its own individual meaning. Many radicals of differing meanings all add up to one character, which often reflects the meanings of its composite radicals.