So, you want to start learning Chinese in 2025, but you’re not sure whether you should learn Simplified or Traditional Chinese, or maybe you aren’t even sure what the differences between them are! This blog post is for you. After reading, you’ll understand the differences between these two Chinese variants and know which questions you need to ask yourself in order to make the right decision. If you prefer video format, check out my YouTube video on this topic!
Table of Contents
Introduction
Hi everyone, welcome to my blog! My name is Ka Yee, and I’m a qualified translator and language teacher, and a proud member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists; my husband and I are also raising our kids to be trilingual in Russian, Chinese, and English. As we step into 2025, I know many of you will be making new year resolutions which may include learning a new language. And if you clicked on this post, you may well be learning Chinese! If so, congratulations - you’ve picked one of the most difficult languages in the world and will have tons of fun along the way. Just kidding.
Understanding Simplified and Traditional Chinese
So, as a beginner, you may have heard about something called “Simplified” Chinese and something called “Traditional Chinese”.
What do these terms even mean? Where do I start?
Don’t worry. This post will demystify all these questions for you and help guide you towards the right decision FOR YOU.
Before you can decide which one to learn, you need to know what Simplified Chinese is and what Traditional Chinese is.
Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese refer to two different SCRIPTS or writing systems for writing the Chinese language.
The key point here is that you cannot SPEAK simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.
Presumably, for most of you who want to learn “Chinese”, you’re thinking Mandarin Chinese, which is the Chinese variant spoken by the largest number of people around the world and is the official spoken language of the People’s Republic of China, where it is known as “Putonghua”. Mandarin is also spoken as an official language in Taiwan. It’s also spoken by various Chinese communities around the world, from Toronto to Timbuktu.
Deciding Which Script to Learn
At this point, you might be wondering: why ARE there two writing systems in the first place?!
Yep, I know, it can be confusing. But in a nutshell, up until the year 1949, there was only ONE writing system for the Chinese language, which was Traditional Chinese, which had been in use in its current form since the Han dynasty, dating back to around 200 BC.
Why was the Simplified Chinese system introduced then? Basically it was introduced in an attempt to increase literacy in China by reducing the number of strokes of some Chinese characters. To give you an example, let’s take a look at this slide. As you can see, the character for “dragon” - ‘Long” - was simplified significantly, reducing the number of strokes from 16 to 5.
Since 1949, Simplified Chinese has been the official script used in mainland China, while Traditional Chinese remains the official script in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Simplified Chinese is also used in Singapore and Malaysia.
OK, so now you know what Simplified and Traditional Chinese ARE, let’s figure out which one YOU should learn.
Considerations for Cantonese Learners
This post was primarily made for people who want to learn Mandarin Chinese purely because most people who want to learn Chinese want to learn Mandarin Chinese.
But of course, some of you might want to learn other Chinese variants, such as Cantonese - I’m highlighting Cantonese because I’m a Cantonese speaker myself and also because a large number of overseas Chinese people speak Cantonese as a heritage language for historical reasons.
So, if you’re someone learning Cantonese, which script should you learn?
The first thing to point out here is that Cantonese is a SPOKEN language and isn’t the same thing as either Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.
Sorry if I’m labouring this point BUT this distinction is so crucial because people get really confused about this. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong, in mainland China, and many other communities around the world and as such, isn’t tied to either Simplified or Traditional Chinese.
Overlap Between the Scripts
OK, so I hope by now, you’ll have a much clearer idea in terms of whether to choose Simplified or Traditional Chinese as you begin your language learning journey. But what if you’re still confused or unsure?
If that’s the case, I want to reassure you that you shouldn’t worry too much about it. Choose the one that appeals to you more.
Why?
Because there’s a significant overlap between the two systems and in reality, based on my own experience speaking to people from both mainland China and Hong Kong, someone from mainland China can still typically read Traditional Chinese without too much of an issue, and vice versa.
Handwriting might well be an issue, but let’s be real: these days, most people hardly ever handwrite anything, right?
When you type Chinese, let’s say using Pinyin, which is the romanisation method associated with Mandarin Chinese used in Mainland China, you can usually choose to output in either Simplified or Traditional Chinese.
Alright folks, as we wrap up today’s post, I hope you feel better equipped to make the best decision on whether to learn Simplified or Traditional Chinese in 2025.
If this topic interests you, check out my other blog post (on my freelance translation website!) which explains the differences between the two and explains how Cantonese is written.
If you found this post helpful, please share it with anyone who might benefit from it!
Thank you, and see you in my next post.
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