Taiwan then Mainland , inefective ???

[pikachu]

Hi,

I want to do a 3 month mandarin studies and think about Taiwain.

But is it ineffective to go and learn chinese in taiwan where it is in complex caracters knowing that afterward I would go in China to finish chinese studies ????

Did somebody had troubles mixing complex and simplified caracters ?

Thanks

Mathieu

[bluepoppy]

Here's just my opinion for you...

I wouldn't call studying Chinese in Taiwan ineffective...after all it's all the same language. If you went you would just have to make the effort to learn the simplified characters on your own. Are you prepared to make the effort is the main question? I actually had a lovely teacher who was prepared to mark compositions from me in simplified, if you went to Taiwan I could message you where she works. But, must say she didn't teach me the characters herself, she was just prepared to mark work in both forms.

Apart from that, I understand your worries but I think there are other factors that should influence your decision more than the question of traditional vs simplified characters:

Will the cost of studying abroad be important to you?

If so, then, you might want to consider the Mainland because of the current exchange rates which favour foreigners and mean that you can study for a reasonable price, especially outside of Beijing/Shanghai. This means that having more money available, you can pay for things like private lessons or a homestay and thus make more improvement.

Or maybe you're rich and it doesn't matter!!!

On the other hand, if you really have the opportunity to go to both places, you might just want to take it and not let scary traditional characters put you off, just see it as a chance to experience both places.

And you can think of the benefits of knowing both types of writing: making it easier to learn classical Chinese, making it easier to take jobs in Hong Kong and Taiwan, just having a deeper understanding of the etymology (right word？）of Chinese, and despite what you might think, actually 'traditional' characters DO pop up in mainland all the time....

[mpallard]

I had been studying in Taiwan for 2 years before I went to the mainland for a two week vacation and after the end of two weeks I was sort of getting used to the Simplified characters. I got the impression that if I were to move to the mainland it wouldn't take me too long to get used to the simplified system.