Traditional Chinese characters deserve World Heritage status - Australia

Interesting article that has both arguments on which on you should learn.

The headache I have seen with some traditional material is it does not do a great job of explaining the system behind Traditional Characters. I do sell Learning Chinese material in both :-)

References:

• Simplifying Chinese Characters Even More?
• Traditional and Simplified Chinese Characters.
• Simplified vs. Traditional Chinese Characters - Which to Learn
• Name Not on Our List? Change It, China Says
• Not as easy as it looks - The Economist.
• The Chinese Language, Ever Evolving - NY Times

Labels: chinese characters

Per the Telegraph, there was a recent proposal to simplify 44 Characters in Chinese even more. The public reaction in China has been 92% against, and 4% for.

IMHO - many of the arguments seem to be very similar to the ones between Simplified Chinese Characters and Traditional Chinese Characters. The issue of the cost of making the changes to all the textbooks seems to be a major one against the change. It's interesting that some places have already made the changes - my guess is as a way of being more trendy.

Plans to simplify Chinese characters provoke anger - UK Telegraph.

An older post of mine that summarizes the arguments between Traditional and Simplified Chinese Characters.

Labels: chinese characters

Schools a battleground over dueling Chinese scripts - LA Times.

I grew up in the city next to Arcadia (Monrovia) and my parents still live there, so I am very familiar with Arcadia. Good article.

Labels: chinese characters

A customer asked what they should use to write Chinese Characters after getting

Long Is A Dragon - Chinese Writing for Kids by Peggy Goldstein

The book is great since it goes through how the character developed. So for a dragon, it will start with a picture of a Dragon and you can see how the Chinese Characters evolved from this. Yes, it's made for kids, but it's a great read for adults also! It goes through this for 75 characters.

The best is the Chinese Brush with Ink to capture the strokes and the differences in thickness. Stroke direction and how the brush varies in thickness when you are into more of an art.

For fun, any brush with paint. The type used in kids projects will work.

For just practicing, a pen works fine. Many teachers just use pens as a nice simple way to practice.

There is also two books that go into more detail:
The Chinese Calligraphy Bible and A Complete Guide to Chinese Calligraphy that goes into more detail on this (designed for adults).

Long Is A Dragon is one of my favorite books,

				Long Is A Dragon - Chinese Writing for Kids by Peggy Goldstein
				Our Price: $17.95
				Pictures provide wonderful introduction to Chinese characters Kids find characters easy to remember Great teaching tool for parents and teachers Features 75 Chinese characters Plus evolution of character strokes One of my most popular books and one of my favorites.

Labels: chinese characters

The NY Times has several people comment traditional vs. Simplified characters. The arguments are the exact same as in a previous post I did and based on where the person is from, you can tell which side they agree with. The best comment I heard was when China simplified the characters, they did not go far enough so both Simplified and Traditional are equally hard to learn. An recent article by the Economist on how the Chinese government is considering to change some of the Simplified Characters.

Reference:

• Simplified vs. Traditional Chinese Characters - Which to Learn
• Name Not on Our List? Change It, China Says
• Not as easy as it looks - The Economist.
• The Chinese Language, Ever Evolving - NY Times.

And for fun I suggest... Fun with Chinese Characters Book, Volume 1 and Long Is A Dragon - Chinese Writing for Kids by Peggy Goldstein

Labels: chinese characters

Chinese calligraphy candidate for world heritage designation - That would be nice, Chinese Characters can be incredibly artistic.

Fun book for kids that teaches some Chinese Characters - Long Is A Dragon - Chinese Writing for Kids by Peggy Goldstein.

And for adults A Complete Guide to Chinese Calligraphy by Qu Lei Lei and The Chinese Calligraphy Bible: The Essential Illustrated Guide to Over 300 Beautiful Characters by Cathy Yat-Ming Wu

Labels: chinese characters

My first choice is Long Is A Dragon - Chinese Writing for Kids by Peggy Goldstein is a fun book that is a great read even if you are not learning Chinese Characters.

• It's fun to see how the Chinese characters evolved.
  
• It shows for example a picture of an ox (with the horns), then the ancient Chinese Symbol that has a curved stroke that looks like a horn, and the current version that does not.
  
• The book also shows you the stroke order
• And explains what happens when you combine two words. Electricity and language, results in telephone.
• The end of the book includes some scrolls that people put on their walls.

It's a great book and a fun activity is get a brush and paper, and have your child do some Chinese Characters for fun! This is also a great book for class room activities.

Labels: chinese characters, Learning Chinese