ricrick

其實，如果你寫開簡體，你就會賴寫繁體

但識睇兩樣都冇壞

tofu

depends on your schools, i don't know ubc la.
but if you want to learn mandarin, you don't have to learn it from ubc ar,
college, school board or private, lots of choices ar.

claichan

I know how to read both 繁體字 and 簡體字. But I think ppl should learn 繁體字 so as to learn the real meaning behind each chinese character. a lot of the 簡體字 cannot really be explained... ...
布小熊 發表於 2009-3-18 10:44

Same here and totally agree with you...

Ultraman

Every language have their value to exist. For example, Korean words are like plain symbols to me, how can people know the words' meaning just by looking at their outlook? Even for English, do people know the actual meaning only by looking at their spelling?

I know Chinese words are quite different, they evolved from ancient time (象形文字), and many of the words used nowadays still have the "idea" behind, but not always work.
The example of "麵" might be a good example, yet, not all 麵 made from "麥" or only from "麥" anyways.

fibbi

Every language have their value to exist. For example, Korean words are like plain symbols to me, how can people know the words' meaning just by looking at their outlook? Even for English, do people k ...
Ultraman 發表於 2009-3-18 15:38

That's why by reading the word, we can get into the root of the meaning of the word. That's also part of the culture. The simplified word just "kill" the culture in most cases.
Take the "noodle" word in your example, noodle comes from flour, which is also made from wheat. It makes perfect sense.

goldie

我喜歡正體字，
到圖書館找中文書看，
也只選擇用正體字印刷的書。
但是我陪長輩看國語劇集，
字幕卻都是簡體字唷！
是不是喜歡正體字的人，
成了少數民族了呢？

fibbi

16# goldie

Those mainland TV drama, only simplified word subtitles are available wor...then just no choice la.

Ultraman

That's why by reading the word, we can get into the root of the meaning of the word. That's also part of the culture. The simplified word just "kill" the culture in most cases.
Take the "noodle" word in your example, noodle comes from flour, which is also made from wheat. It makes perfect sense.
fibbi 發表於 2009-3-18 15:10

I meant, for English, people can't "guess" the meaning just by looking at the spelling of the words. According to Chinese culture, yep, we can guess/know the meaning of some of the words just by looking at them, yet, that is not a must, and not a proper way to learn/use a language.
I just quoted "麵" as further discussion, which stated by someone else but not me earlier, if someone think "麵" must be made by some kind of flour or wheat, that might be not too objective, because besides the ingredient, the word "麵" also stand for the "form" (shape) of this particular food.
Many Chinese words don't "appear" as the real meaning as they do. We have to learn their actual meanings anyways, I won't bother to "guess" their meanings just by looking at them (which might not be accurate).
I don't hate simplified Chinese, but I agree it might be inconvenience for HKese (and Taiwanees) cuz it's not popularly learnt. However, people can treat learning it as another knowledge, which could be valuable in our daily lives.
Think about, maybe more and more Western people can speak Mandarin and write simplified Chinese better than we "Chinese". lol

fibbi

The word 麵 is made up of the major ingredient, which is flour (or wheat), and the other part is the sound of the word. It's not really to do with the shape of noodle.
Anyway, even in English (which is derived from Latin), there is also study of Etymology. Of course I'm no expert in the Linguistic field. But language is (and should be) more than just a symbol of representing some meaning. By changing the form of the word, we are losing history and part of the culture.
In all, I"m not opposing the learning of simplified word. It's still the official language of mainland China. We should be able to read, for practical reason. But in my opinion we should start learning 繁體字 first, so that we understand the deeper meaning of the word and the language itself.

chunsh

to those who refuse to learn 簡體字:
I dont like reading 簡體字 too
but think, the country that create 簡體字 (our mother country) got the money and power now. Do you want to fight with the $$$