History of Simplified Chinese Characters
Simplified Chinese character forms used in print and handwriting have always existed (they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty (221 - 206 BC), though early attempts at simplification actually resulted in more characters being added to the lexicon). Advocates of simplification believed that the majority would learn to read and write and study more readily with Simplified Chinese. Opponents complain that by merging many characters into one, the effect is "complicating", not simplifying, the character system. also, Opponents say that by offering a new meaning to a traditional character, it jeopardized the study of ancient literature by creating a discontinuity between modern text and the literal text.
Simplified Chinese characters are created by one of the three methods: **Reducing the number of brush strokes of a character by either logical revision or the importing of ancient variant or obscure forms. ** Combining some complicated characters into one simpler character ** Giving a new meaning to a traditional character with small number of strokes.
Simplified Chinese Character for Chinese Language Learner
Foreigners studying Chinese will need to make a decision about what set of characters to learn. Simplified characters are used in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia. Those wishing to travel or work with these places should learn simplified characters. Most Chinese speakers in the world use simplified characters. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan and many overseas Chinese communities all use traditional Chinese script. Pre-1950s historical texts, as well as writings in Korean and Vietnamese that use Chinese characters, are also written in traditional characters. Students that have interests in these places, or are mainly interested in historical documents, should learn traditional characters.
Simplified chinese character is easy for Chinese lanauguage beginners compared with traditional Chinese characters. moreover, Once you’ve learned simplified Chinese characters, it is not difficult to learn the traditional one.
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