I’ve been studying 4 years of Traditional Chinese, already spent lots of $$, and lately I’ve been thinking if I should drop T. Chinese and switch to Simplified Chinese. Can T. Chinese become obsolete in the future? Besides Taiwan, where can I use T. Chinese?
Well, you only need to know the most commonly used 3,000 to be considered mostly fluent, right? After 4 years of study would you say you know a couple of thousand by now? 
Learn the traditional ones, it comes in handy even outside of Taiwan and will make it easier to pick up on simple characters anyway. Besides, tell a hot mainland chick you learned traditional characters out of love and admiration for traditional Chinese culture and she’ll want you instantly, especially if you know them better than she does.
If I were to live in Scotland, should switch from Scottish Gaelic to learning Scots? I guess that’s a horrible comparison.
Anyway, it is extremely easy to learn Simplified Chinese once you mastered Traditional, not so easy the other way around. The reason is that Simplified Chinese is a destructive compression on Traditional Chinese character sets. So once you’ve learn which T.C. characters is matched into one character, then you have no problem understanding them all. But if you start with S.C., then you need basically have to learn new characters when you want to pick up T.C.
This is evident in conversion tools. When using tools like Tong Wen Tang, the T->S conversion is always correct, but S->T conversion is full of errors, because you need to be context aware to be able to convert Simplified Chinese back into Traditional. This is a challenging task for computers and newbies.
E.g.
T S
後 
后
后↗
台
檯↘
颱 台
臺↗
乾↘
幹 干
干↗
系↘
係 系
繫↗
What would be more challenging is to get used to the different terms, especially translated terms, in various Chinese speaking areas. But even within China there are obvious variations in terms used.
Also, traditional character aren’t really gone from China or Singapore either. There are situations when they are used, and then you’d benefit from having learned T.C. first. Also, Japan’s Kanji and Korea’s Hanja are also more similar with T.C., even when they have their own simplifications, they are not the same as S.C. version. So I would say, don’t sweat it, your money is well spent.
Thank you for all the replies. I’m going to “test” my limited Chinese in China during this summer vacation and I am quite nervous, what if I can’t read a simple menu? I don’t know if the mainland Chineses would feel a little hostile to tourists using traditional Chinese instead of their Simplified Chinese. I’ve never been there.
Any Chinese ability should be well received. Just don’t tell them, “I learned traditional characters in Taiwan. I like Taiwan better than China. Taiwan is not China.” At least not until after you finished your meal and paid.
If you want discount, tell them you learned Chinese in China. If they ask you where in China, you can say the province of Taiwan.
Depends on what your goals are.
I, for one, recommend learning both systems.
If you want discount, tell them you learned Chinese in China. If they ask you where in China, you can say the province of Taiwan.[/quote]
If you’re cool with completely sacrificing your dignity for a piddly discount on some food, then yes. Personally, I would only lower myself to such depths if I were trying to pick up on a model-type-quality young woman. The next day I could blame it on the booze and live with myself again
Hong kong is another place using T.C, hong kongese are trying hard to keep the culture.
Some of my mainland friends actually prefer traditional characters themselves, not that they tend to know them well. But they are proud of their culture and want to learn them.
I also found learning traditional characters first, then learning simplified wasn’t too hard. Many of the simplifications are standard, which you can learn easily, and others you can get from context.
If you want discount, tell them you learned Chinese in China. If they ask you where in China, you can say the province of Taiwan.[/quote]
If you’re cool with completely sacrificing your dignity for a piddly discount on some food, then yes. Personally, I would only lower myself to such depths if I were trying to pick up on a model-type-quality young woman. The next day I could blame it on the booze and live with myself again[/quote]
Well, you could drive around China with your Taiwanese drivers licence and if you get pulled over claim that you didn’t know they didn’t accept drivers licences from all provinces. Then wait for the political bomb to explode. Been there done that. Priceless cop expression.
[quote=“E04teacherlin”]
Well, you could drive around China with your Taiwanese drivers licence and if you get pulled over claim that you didn’t know they didn’t accept drivers licences from all provinces. Then wait for the political bomb to explode. Been there done that. Priceless cop expression.[/quote]
I would love to know the rest of the story
[quote=“hansioux”]
I would love to know the rest of the story[/quote]
I second that.
Back on topic: learning simplified after you’re comfortable with traditional is about as hard as learning to say “lift” instead of elevator and “boot” instead of trunk. Traditional Chinese is an invaluable tool if, like me, you are researching literature and historical documents. But more than anything else, it just looks prettier.
As a Taiwanese I must say that S.C. even takes me some time to read(sometimes, but not most of the time.). Some of the characters are too simple that makes them difficult to connect with traditional ones.So I don’t think you would understand the menu in China immediately. BUT,as mentioned above, if you learn traditional Chinese, you will hav chance to understand those simplified ones. If you learn S.C. then is would be really hard to learn T.C., which is used in TW and HK.
The other thing is , i don’t think they will be hostile to tourists using Traditional Chinese. People I met in China are mostly nice to Taiwanese 'cause their education taught them most Taiwanese consider China as their mother nation.Even the Chinese people I met in U.S thought the same(My roommate, who is a lovely Chinese girl from beijing once asked me about do most Taiwanese think that Taiwan is a nation? I answered honestly and that broke her heart. But she still took it well with a little bit disappointment. )You might just carefully avoid the political issue and you would be just fine.The only problem might be they may not understand the traditional Chinese that you use, but you could always use a S.C-T.C translator.
[quote=“hansioux”][quote=“E04teacherlin”]
Well, you could drive around China with your Taiwanese drivers licence and if you get pulled over claim that you didn’t know they didn’t accept drivers licences from all provinces. Then wait for the political bomb to explode. Been there done that. Priceless cop expression.[/quote]
I would love to know the rest of the story[/quote]
Sorry it took so long.
I was visiting with a friend and he was driving, not me. Did exactly what I said above and the two cops looked at each other slightly confused, knowing that he was pulling a quick one I am sure, and just said drive safely and let him go. We laughed for ages. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were laughing about it too.
Lucky you, I had a Chinese female room mate who refuse to stop calling me comrade or quit telling me about the greatness of the motherland or how much the CCP loves the people.
Concerning topic:
Well, the question is why you would want to switch, or even if there is something as “switch”. Being able to read both is absolutely no problem: If you can already read Chinese, just read some simplified stuff and look the characters up which are not instantly recognisable (either you get the “oh, I did know that word in TC” or that you learned a new word).
Well, writing is another task. There you may have to choose one, but answer honestly: When did you write something with a pen the last time? And on the pc, it is just a click away.