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KL - I was wondering what the rational was for using traditional chinese characters with the chinese curriculum? The majority of the world (China, Singapore, Malaysia and western countries (eg Australia where I am) where chinese is taught) use the simplified characters. Thanks for your help.
It would be good to do both traditional & simplified chinese characters. For those of you who do Chinese with your babies. Do you find if they get confused?
I recently used BabyLearnsChinese with my baby. He loves all the 1st 3 CDs, so I bought the 2nd set of 3CDs. It has the traditional Chinese in it too, but I am wondering if he'll get confused.
Any experiences to share?
I have been using Baby Learns Chinese with my 14 month old and I have always shown her the traditional characters. The reason is that I was taught the traditional characters when I was growing up. I had no formal teaching for simplified Chinese. Nevertheless, I find it easy to read simplified since, most of the time, you can understand the characters just based on the context alone. I think once my baby learns to read traditional Chinese, reading simplified Chinese will also come easy for her. However, the reverse is not true.
Another reason is that there is a lot of history and meaning behind each Chinese character (for example: the character for rest is actually derived from a drawing of a man resting beside a tree) and I think most of the beauty and meaning is lost with the simplified characters. I want my baby not only to be able to read Chinese, but also to appreciate the beauty and elegance of the written language.
Anyway, that's my two cents' worth. Hope it helps...
I very agree, the simplified Chinese can not show the meaning of the character. unlike the other language, each Chinese character has its story. Only the traditional Chinese can do that. Beside, of course i want my child learn the language, but i also want them know about the culture and the history.
