Language Translation Blog

Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese?

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Many times our clients know they need their documents translated into "Chinese", but they are left scratching their heads when asked if they need "Simplified Chinese" or "Traditional Chinese".  Hopefully, this will help...  When you are requesting a chinese translation, it depends on the country where the translation will be used.

Here is a listing of countries and which version of Chinese they use:

• Mainland China - Simplified Chinese
• Taiwan - Traditional Chinese
• Hong Kong - Traditional Chinese
• United States - Traditional Chinese (generally)
• Macao - Traditional Chinese
• Malaysia (Chinese population) - Traditional Chinese
• Singapore - Simplified Chinese

You might be wondering "what is the big deal?"  Unfortunately, there is a significant difference between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.  The Simplified Chinese characters have fewer strokes.  It's enough of a difference, that it is difficult for those who learned Traditional Chinese to read the Simplified Chinese and vice-versa.  It's a movement which The People's Republic of China started in 1949.  Since then, the simplified characters have been modified as the new language continues to evolve.

Primarily, all of this only relates to written Chinese.  As for speaking, Chinese people can understand each other without any problems.  But some of the word choices are a little different between the two.  It's kind of like how people from America and people from England have different ways of expressing themselves, even though both use English.

Let's look at some examples between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese:

English Word	Traditional Chinese	Simplified Chinese
CD	光碟	光盘
activate	啟動	激活
Police	警察	公安
horse	馬	马
happy	高興	高兴

Because of these differences in the language and the desire to communicate to multiple countries who speak Chinese, the best answer might be to have both versions on your website or available in print.

What if you already have Simplified Chinese and you want Traditional Chinese?  It has to be retranslated.  And while it's easier than translating from another language, special care must be given to completely change the document from one form to another.

If you have any questions regarding the Chinese languages, please contact us and we would be glad to help you get the correct chinese translation you need.