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[Drizzt]

So next year I plan to come to Taiwan from China.

In China I've already invested quite a bit of my free time in learning the simplified characters. I have almost no experience with the traditional characters, but I was told that about 70% are about the same-is this true?

If anyone is experienced with both the simplified and traditional, I'm curious--is it pretty easy to make the switch if you already have a good base with the simplified? Right now maybe I can recognize about 400 characters and write from memory about 100. By the time I leave next year I would like to triple this number. If, however, the traditional is so very different from simplified then maybe it's a waste of time...any suggestions?

[TaoyuanSteve]

I'd keep going with the study if I were you. After all we are talking about the same language here. Maybe de-emphasize the written component of your studies(?). The transition, I'm told, is easier from traditional to simplified, rather than the way you are going-- the reason being it's easier to see where strokes have been taken out/ changes have been made than to imagine where they would go in. Many basic characters are the same or similar though. You may profit from using learning software to be able to make the transition. I have Rosetta Stone Chinese on my PC and I can switch back and forth from traditional to simplified. The printed textbooks are even easier having pinyin romanization, simplified and traditional for each sentence on the same line. Also Pleco dictionary for Palm supports both traditional and simplified as well. I suppose the best would be to begin studying both simultaneously. This would probably be the best approach anyway as it is useful to be familiar with both.

[markholmes]

It's definitely easier going from traditional to simplified, but if your reading is fairly good you will pick it up, although after living in Taiwan for two years I was still discovering characters that I should have known (and knew in simplified), but hadn't made the connection in traditional.

Simplified is often (but not always) traditional characters with radical / components missing，so the major component remains and the meaning is made clear by the context.

I never really bothered with the writing aspect, unless I was trying to memorise characters, in which case I wrote them over and over again. I still have a tendency to write characters from the bottom up. My teacher used to tell me I looked like I was building a house.

Really the only time you need to know stroke order is when you are looking things up in the dictionary, and if you remember its top left to bottom right that isn't that difficult (well, usually).

The reading is the most important. Writing is easily achieved by using a computer. I use the Microsoft Chinese package which was already on my computer that I bought in Taiwan. I type in the Pinyin and the computer guesses the character or gives me a list of charcters to choose from, which is easy.

I would keep going with it. Its definitely worth the effort.

[Drizzt]

Thanks for the advice guys, I was unaware of one difference being the absence of radicals in some of the characters.

One reason I like practicing the writing aspect is because it also helps me recognize the characters.

Also, here in China all TV programs have the Hanzi subtitles since there are so many different regional dialects here. Even if I don't catch all of the spoken it will definitely make watching TV easier, since I can read and listen at the same time.

I'm guessing since Taiwan is so small, there is no need to subtitle the TV programs there?

[Aristotle]

You should learn the simplified characters while you have the chance. Taiwan is the last hold out of the ancient characters and continues to resist all forms of romanization.
This attitude permeates all aspects of occupational government policy in dealing with the world outside the occupied territories of the Taiwan area.
Needless to say the occupational government may not be around that much longer and use of the traditional characters will no doubt die with the ROC.
Please read this,

10 Steps to Success on Taiwan!
Good luck!
A.

[markholmes]

Partly right Aristotle. It's true that Singapore and Malaysia also teach Pinyin in schools and Pinyin will become the basic standard for the masses, but if you want any chance of being able to read a menu, read street signs, understand writings in temples or basically understand characters used in everyday life in most parts of Asia then you better have a good grounding in traditional characters. This would include Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong & Macau. Plus anything written in China prior to 1955 (or there abouts). Even in Vancouver everything is written in traditional characters as I suspect it is throughout North America.

I think the traditional will become more of an honorific script, used for documents or special events. Simplified characters are looked down on by most Chinese not from the mainland as being ugly.

I think if you are in your 20s or 30s you can be sure that in your lifetime your efforts to learn traditional characters will not be wasted. They are not going anywhere soon.

[wix]

For an explanation of how simplified characters were derived have a look at this link: http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/hanzi/t-s-ssim.htm

The issue of traditional vs. simplified should not be compared to romanisation issues. There are lots of good reasons why Taiwan should adopt Hanyu Pinyin as a standard romanisation system rather than the mess that currently exists, but the use of traditional characters does not create the same sorts of problems.