Re: Chinese writing systems

Barry writes:

>Yes, and they also use the traditional system while the Chinese use the
>simplified. My friend Irene whose family is from Taiwan says she can't
>read simplified Chinese.
One wonders how much this is actually true vs. how much it reflects a
desire to feel separate and distinct from the mainland. When I lived
in Taiwan, my Taiwanese partner would ask me to read letters for him
from mainland relatives (I'm a non-native speaker) and would hand
such letters to me like he was handling a piece of rancid fish. I was
like, "Dude, this isn't so difficult." My experience is only
anecdotal, but I teethed on the traditional system in university, and
picked up simplified along the way. Not so difficult. Expat friends
who studied simplified first said traditional was a real bugaboo. So
I don't have proof per se, but I would imagine traditional -->
simplified is easier than simplified--> traditional, and even *that*
is not insurmountable.

Kou

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