Simplified versus Traditional Mandarin
I love the Chinese language, however in learning it I must make choices that will make sense to me. Because I am in the field of Chinese Medicine, I have been told by friends and Professors that all the research which comes out of the Mainland is Simplified Chinese.

I was also told that in HongKong and Taiwan they use the traditional Chinese. So is it sufficient to know simplified or will I be missing out a lot in not learning the traditional?

Even when I read comments about the textbooks: "Integrated Chinese", it seems that the first textbook is simplified and latter it is both.

Does it make sense to learn both? Or as a chinese learner when one begins with the simplified characters, there might be a point in time when you move to the traditional?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Question

Simplified versus Traditional Mandarin
I love the Chinese language, however in learning it I must make choices that will make sense to me. Because I am in the field of Chinese Medicine, I have been told by friends and Professors that all the research which comes out of the Mainland is Simplified Chinese.

I was also told that in HongKong and Taiwan they use the traditional Chinese. So is it sufficient to know simplified or will I be missing out a lot in not learning the traditional?

Even when I read comments about the textbooks: "Integrated Chinese", it seems that the first textbook is simplified and latter it is both.

Does it make sense to learn both? Or as a chinese learner when one begins with the simplified characters, there might be a point in time when you move to the traditional?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Answer

while I haven't read your latter textbook ,but basically there is not easy to  learn both of them for beginner. as leo said, simplified is a trend.Even the language I am woring on, Japanese, they got some simplified chinese characters, like 国,学 instead of 國,學 used in HK and taiwan.( However most of them there are still traditional in Japanese )It seems I have been carried away! Anyway, I reckon if your textbook is for school, then just follows. If you are studying by yourself, then just study the simplified as the foundamental, and improve your knowledge for traditional ones later.  You can learn them both for sure but always make simplified the first, I think it helps you get better with the study.

Answer

For most Chinese young man,they are also not familiar with  traditional Chinese, they are not taught in the class.Simplified Chinese is a tend.Before Singapore used traditional Chinese,now they change to Simplified Chinese.If you learn Chinese for reading  and communicating.It's not a problem.Of course, Simplified Chinese come from traditional Chinese,traditional Chinese is more Chinese,it  express Chinese culture better.But if you are a beginner in Chinese,I suggest you begin with simplified Chinese.And in fact,if you learn simplified well,you will find they have a lot in commom.It would not be a point,it would be a helper.

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