Learning Traditional Characters in Beijing

[ffswoo]

I have some background in Chinese, but with traditional characters. This summer I really want to improve my spoken Mandarin, but I want to keep up my writing/reading too, and learning with simplified characters will put me back a lot...

I know it's a very long shot, but does anyone know anywhere in Beijing that focuses on character-learning in the traditional form? (I'm willing to take separate oral and writing/reading classes if there is somewhere that teaches traditional form!)

Thanks for any info you might have! I guess if worse comes to worse I can take oral classes in Beijing for the Mandarin, then go to Hong Kong for reading/writing classes....

[imron]

Why not go to Taiwan, where they both speak Mandarin and use Traditional characters? This way you can practice your reading/writing/speaking at the same time. Mainland China is pretty much simplified characters all the way, and all the text-books here focus on simplified characters more or less exclusively.

[HashiriKata]

There are many private schools that offer one-to-one teaching. It's therefore possible to find some places that tailor their teaching to your specific need (but whether you yourself can find them is a different question). Even if you find somewhere in Beijing for what you need, I still don't think this is advisible because you'll be doing the wrong thing in the wrong place: after/ outside your classes, everywhere else you'll only see simplified. Going to HK after BJ for learning characters is not a neat solution either. Going to Taiwan in the first place, as suggested by imron, seems to be your best bet.

[onebir]

I believe Tapei Language Institute has texts in Trad characters, but it is geared up for 1-1 lessons & quite expensive.

[xianu]

Going to Taiwan is probably your best bet. There are a number of language schools in taiwan, and IMO one of the best language schools in the world for learning Mandarin, the ICLP (International CHinese Language Program) at Taida. I think all schools have switched from Taiwan's nightmare romanization "system" to pinyin, too, so that shouldn't be a concern anymore, either. Both Taida's ICLP and Tai shida's Mandarin training Center are both excellent places, as well as the Taipei language institute. Don't forget that there are also a number of excellent summer programs in the states, some immersion, and some just intensive language.

[muirm]

I guess this isn't really an option at this point, but I know IUP offers most of their textbooks in simplified and traditional, so you can choose to study what you want.

[character]

[...] I want to keep up my writing/reading too, and learning with simplified characters will put me back a lot...

Is that really a valid premise? It's worth knowing how to read both. You could annotate/rewrite selected assignments, articles, etc. in traditional characters, read traditional character books/websites, etc.

http://xahlee.org/lojban/simplified_chars.html

http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/hanzi/index.html

[ffswoo]

Thanks for the replies! I had my heart set on Beijing (went there for leisure for 10 days last summer and loved it), but I'll do some research on Taida and Taishida and see what TLI is offering.

character - I've been debating the simp/trad question for a few years now, and I think at this stage my Chinese isn't good enough yet for me to switch to learning in simplified form. I'm planning on familiarising myself with it once I have a strong enough foundation in traditional form, but not until then, as my head doesn't have enough space for both. I was really sad when the UN announced it was switching to simplified as the official language, though it's for the best, since pretty much all of China uses it.

[imron]

Actually the switch probably isn't going to be as hard as you think it is. First of all, a large portion of the characters are the same in both sets, secondly another significant portion are simplified following reasonably consistent rules, and once you've learnt those rules it's easy to figure out the corresponding character in the other set.

The number of characters that are completely different/unrecognisable really only make up a small portion of the total, and even then, it's sometimes not too hard to guess from context (especially if it's part of another word). So it's not like you end up learning twice as many characters.

I've only ever learnt simplified however I can usually make out the meaning of stuff I see written in traditional (although I read it at a much slower speed).

I guess it all comes down to how you plan to use your Chinese in the future. If you're going to be doing anything with Mainland China, then there's no reason not to start learning simplified.