If you are just started learning Chinese, you might not realize that the are two different sets of characters – one called Traditional Characters  (繁体字 in Simplified Chinese, 繁體字 in TraditionalChinese) and the other called Simplified Characters (简体字 in Simplified Chinese, 簡體字 in Simplified Chinese)

Simplified Characters are used in Mainland China. Traditional Characters are used in most Chinese speaking countries and communities outside of China. Many will argue that the meaning of the Chinese charaters is lost in the simplified form. People from mainland China will often tell you that the Traditional Characters are much harder to learn.

As an example, the traditional character 門 which means door in English is written 门 in simplified form. The shape of a door is much clearer in the simplified character and perhaps that even aids in memory. On the other had, it takes only three strokes to write the simplified form and eight to write the traditional form.

I tend to agree that the Traditional Characters are harder to learn. But I agree they carry more meaning in the pictogram and that they are, in general, more beautiful and more balanced. On this website, I have chosen to use simplified characters because there are far more websites available using the simplified character and more material available for learning. When you learn Chinese reasonably well, you will likely be able to recognize the traditional characters from context and from a knowledge of how the characters are often changed.

What do you think?  Do you have a preference for which style of characters you learn?  Which do you think are more beautiful?

P.S.  If you answered, “I think these characters are a real pain in the a**!!”, you might want to switch to learning French.