广阔天地, 大有做为!

Overseas Chinese offspring and CFL (Chinese as a Foreign Language) person, when they started to learn Chinese, they have to face two choices: Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese. There are always dozen of reasons to support each option. I recently watch an program about the students of Hong Kong primary school. A girl was being interviewed, she was from mainland China, now is studying in Hong Kong. When she was asked her opinion on writing traditional Chinese Characters, she said she was very glad to write traditional characters. She said when writing complex tradtional characters, she had a feeling of writing the culture.

I have the same feeling as this little girl in learning French. Modern French is greatly influenced by English, many English expressions are now used directly in French, for instance : Bon Weekend. By for me, I was always trying to avoid using English expression, or mininize them.
When speaking out a long "Bonne fin de semaine! " I felt I was speaking the culture!

In simplified Chinese characters, one character may be used by two different traditional characters, see the examples I had collected below. If we know only simplified characters, we are ignorant the profound Chinese culture.

Simplified Characters & its Traditional Counterparts
冲： 沖（*刷，*服）；衝（*鋒，*撃）
发： 發（*現，*展，*電）；髮（白*，千鈞一*）
丰： 豐（*富，*满，*收）；丰（*采，*姿，*韵）
干： 幹（*活，才*，*练）；乾（*旱，*脆，外强中*，口*舌燥）
后： 後（然*，*来居上）；后（太*，*妃）
划： 劃（規*，*時代）；划（*船，*算）
制： 制（控*，*服，因地*宜）； 製（*造，复*，粗*滥造）
钟： 鐘（閙*，警*）；鍾（*情，老態龍*）