Little Reader (Chinese)-- Simplified or Traditional?

[Humbler9]

I'll be buying the Chinese LR for my twins, but I don't know which version will be more useful.  We live in the United States, and would like to buy the most appropriate LR.

Can anyone please help me?  Traditional or Simplified?  This will be their 4th language, but I want to make sure that it's as useful as possible.  Please help.

John

[oaita]

Let me list out the pros and cons so perhaps you can decide.

Simplified:
Pros - used by more people as it is the official written language in mainland China (Taiwan uses traditional Chinese exclusively, and I believe Hong Kong still uses traditional Chinese for formal writing)
Cons - many words have lost their true meaning during the simplifying process (words are not only simplified to fewer strokes, but different words are also simplified to the same word)

Traditional:
Pros - retains more original meaning of the words
Cons - many official translations are only in simplified Chinese (for example, public places with Chinese signs, manuals, airplanes)

Personally, I grew up learning traditional Chinese, and it wasn't hard to learn simplified Chinese - you start to see the patterns of how words were simplified.  I didn't have re-learn the language, but instead was able to pick up naturally after spending a month in China, or many times you can just guess.  However, as your babies grow up, they will most likely only be able to learn simplified Chinese from school, so it may be easier to just start out with simplified Chinese.  Since this is their 4th language, I would think that simplified Chinese is sufficient (more useful too).

It's definitely a personal choice.  We chose traditional Chinese because our families are from Taiwan, but we hope our kids will be able to read both in the future.  Hope this is helpful.

[Latreia]

I agree with Oaita.
simplified is created by mainland chinese, & most words (if not all) had lost its original meaning.
Just a few exampls here : love (ai) in traditional (TC) has a heart in it but simplified (SC), the heart is gone,
replaced by a friend & how could we love without oue hearts ? FYI, TC words is like a written picture,
which you can make up the meaning looking at the picture,provided you know a little of the language.

Next is the word listen (ting), in TC there is a ear+a heart, which means you must listen with your ears +
using your heart. Beautiful, is it not.. But in SC, it is cut down to a mouth+kilograme(weight),
so I always say the youngsters nowadays dont listen but put in lots of arguments (mouth) when we say
something to them instead.

I learnt a little TC when I was young, it is still in use in HK & Taiwan.
I am glad it  is preserved that way there. Elsewhere, it has gone SC, at least officially.
Personally, I prefer my bb to know TC first as later on she can catch up SC everywhere,
as I think a beautiful language full of the original meanings should be learnt, also it is a good
way to teach moral too. you will soon find out later 

[queriquita]

what about how it sounds?  i've heard that there are so many different dialects, but the written language is what is unifying.  is this the case?  our oldest has gotten pretty obsessed with mickey videos on youtube from http://www.youtube.com/user/qbb95432?feature=watch and http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperCartoon111?feature=watch. 

can someone tell me if this is tc or sc? or something altogether different - thanks!!  all i know is that our son has started counting in chinese when we're out and about, and singing the theme songs. i don't understand it, except for maybe 5% and that may be a stretch.  but he seems to get it and LOVES it - begs for more ... when they ask him questions, he replies in english *shrug* so i'm guessing it's working.  at the very least, if he opts to pursue it later on, it will make it easier for him to pick up.  in the meantime, i'd like to foster his interest.  i'm leaning towards tc, but don't want to confuse him if what he's hearing a la mickey is sc.  thanks again!

[aangeles]

what about how it sounds?  i've heard that there are so many different dialects, but the written language is what is unifying.  is this the case?  our oldest has gotten pretty obsessed with mickey videos on youtube from http://www.youtube.com/user/qbb95432?feature=watch and http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperCartoon111?feature=watch. 

can someone tell me if this is tc or sc?

In your first link, the written language in the videos is in Traditional Chinese and the spoken language is Mandarin. In the second link, the written language is in Simplified Chinese and the spoken language is Mandarin. Perhaps this post by Kezia will clarify it better: http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-signing-speaking-foreign-languages/simplified-chinese-versus-traditional-chinese/msg71771/#msg71771

As for me, I am teaching my daughter to read Traditional characters and speak Mandarin and Hokkien (one of the major dialects). I am reposting here my reasons for choosing Traditional:

I grew up learning Traditional but I found it quite easy to learn the simplified characters when necessary. I'm not sure if it would have been as easy the other way around. Also, most of the Traditional characters have stories and meaning behind the origin of each character, which is part of the beauty of the Chinese language. I find that this is lost with the simplified characters. It also bothers me a little that there seems to be no logic to the way the characters were simplified - i.e. some of the most complicated characters with dozens of strokes were not simplified while most of the easily written characters were simplified even more. Those are some of the reasons I chose to teach my daughter the traditional characters. Plus, when I am teaching her to read Chinese, to her it is like looking at images anyway so I don't think it is any harder for her to remember the traditional characters over the simplified ones.

That being said, I agree with hypatia that here in the U.S., most of the available books and teaching tools are in simplified. I have gone to great lengths to procure materials that are printed in Traditional characters, sometimes ordering directly from Taiwan and Hong Kong and sometimes even printing out the traditional characters on sticker paper and sticking them onto the books that are in simplified. (I am using Doman-style chinese books to teach her to read so it is easy to do that since the words are on a different page from the picture.) I guess that just goes to show how strongly I feel about my daughter learning the traditional characters. 

[queriquita]

aangeles, thank you so much for your reply!  it supported my reasons for teaching traditional chinese, and clarified my mickey question!  

as for the dialects ... is it necessary to teach a different dialect? when i think of dialects, i think of how i speak english compared to how someone in the uk (or texas ) speaks english ... granted, there are accents and variations on using certain words, but we still understand one another well enough, at least to figure out what those 'other' words mean and when/how to use them.  just as you stated that sc should be an 'easy' transition after they learn tc, is speaking mandarin 'good enough' to get them by if they were to go to 'typical' tourist/business spots?  my end goal in teaching multiple languages (aside from it being great for brain development) is to give my children a functional tool that they could/would ideally use as adults whether for work or pleasure. 

thanks!

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