Anyone speak mandarin?

[DiceyGrammar]

Is it difficult to learn?

Would you recommend it as a language?

[Ad Bot]

[ßlöükfáce]

I know like literally 4 symbols but there's several thousands more
Like upwards of 80,000 iirc

[Night Fox]

any language that isn't latin-based is gonna be a lil hard. you gotta learn a new alphabet or in this case, the words just work differently
but after you're past that it's probably even easier than english

[TeeOS]

[Swat 3]

wo hen how

xei xei

i forgot the meager mandarin i learned in 3 months 

[RagnaTheBroedge]

Not too hard as long as you keep at it. It's definitely a good language to learn for its internationality.

[DiceyGrammar]

Not too hard as long as you keep at it. It's definitely a good language to learn for its internationality.

on an international/ practical basis, do i go with traditional or simplified writing?

[RagnaTheBroedge]

Practically speaking you'd want to go with simplified, it's what I was taught in school because, in my teacher's words, "why the hell wouldn't you?"

[Char]

on an international/ practical basis, do i go with traditional or simplified writing?

If I remember correctly, mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) uses simplified Chinese while the rest uses traditional.

[DiceyGrammar]

Practically speaking you'd want to go with simplified, it's what I was taught in school because, in my teacher's words, "why the hell wouldn't you?"

well what do the non-mainland Chinese communities use?

i'm not going to china, i'm only interacting with Chinese communities within my own country

[RagnaTheBroedge]

well what do the non-mainland Chinese communities use?
i'm not going to china, i'm only interacting with Chinese communities within my own country

Oh, if they're... You're Australian, yeah? If they're immigrants they'd probably mostly use traditional scripts.

[ChexGuy331]

A lot of people used to traditional don't like simplified because of how it sometimes reuses the "wrong" character for certain words. The way I see it is, if you can read traditional you can definitely read simplified.

I can't read either for stuff, though.

[Char]

A lot of people used to traditional don't like simplified because of how it sometimes reuses the "wrong" character for certain words.

i think it's just that they don't like the simplifications or that it's just multiple characters are simplified into just one (in this case)

although I guess that's why you put "wrong" in quotes

[DiceyGrammar]

well traditional it is then

what about Pinyin, i've come across a few things already asking me to select either Hanyu pinyin or Tongyong Pinyin?

[Char]

what about Pinyin, i've come across a few things already asking me to select either Hanyu pinyin or Tongyong Pinyin?

hanyu's the most common and is also the official romanization for PRC (People's Republic of China)