<p>Is it necessary to translate an app from simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese for Taiwanese users?</p>
<p>Yes. It is necessary for a product in Taiwan.</p>
<p>What is the language of newspapers, media, and films in Taiwan?</p>
<p>It is the traditional character set that is the official and standard written language in Taiwan.</p>
<p>Can a person from Taiwan read and understand Simplified Chinese?</p>
<p>By education only, a person from Taiwan could not read the simplified character. But in practice, many people from Taiwan have little difficulty reading simplified characters.</p>
<p>From a cultural point of view, would a Taiwanese prefer to read the app in traditional Chinese?</p>
<p>Of cause. He or she has been learning it for at least 12 years.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-28T12:42:55.693Z
2023-08-28T12:42:55.693Z
PdotWang
<p>Should you offer both simplified and traditional chinese for people in different areas? definitely.</p>
<p>Think of when games offer a british english and american english version.  If you are on the other version then the one you are used to, you will see spellings that stick out and distract you, as well as whole words you don't know like blinker vs indicator.  Also think of some fonts that are really hard to read, like a really intense cursive handwriting.  Combine these together and you have a very rough approximation for the simplified vs traditional chinese experience.  Yes most educated people can read both with practice, but it will always feel more comfortable to use the one you're used to.</p>
<p>That said, translation isn't needed. Well to be clear, some minor translation would be ideal to change vocab preferences like the blinker vs indicator example.  However a simple conversion of simplified to traditional characters can be done in a single line of programming to alter if the unicode shows as hans or hant, or the text could be manually ran through something like google There are a small amount of characters the conversion would misidentify, but it would have probably 99% accuracy.      Almost all chinese webpages and apps have a button programmed in to allow users to choose which they like for good user experience :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-30T13:45:35.827Z
You are correct, but, if the distance between British English and American English is 1 meter, then that between Traditional Chinese to Simplified Chinese would be 1 kilometer. Still, it is not very far, just 1-minute drive if you know the way to go. :-)
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-02T13:38:56.767Z
@PdotWang some british and american accents are very different, even different enough to compare to standard mandarin vs sichuan mandarin that aren't mutually intelligible-- of course I wasn't referring to those either, but there are some that are similar to the differences of simplified and traditional in level.  Only similar comparing the level of differences though, english and chinese are so different they don't even work the same way.  None of them are literally the same differences.  Hope that helps clarify what I meant in my comparison (◐‿◑)
zagrycha
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-30T02:06:03.003Z
2023-08-30T02:06:03.003Z
zagrycha
<p><strong>For simple mobile APP, &quot;No&quot;</strong>, because most of the simplifications are common in both places. However, beware of some &quot;function keys&quot; that might have different names, or use different terminologies due to translation differences.</p>
<p>(Content modified on 8/30/2023)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-30T13:53:42.367Z
even though I disagree with your point of view, I do not like someone making a negative flag on your answer. I can only reduce one by my own capability, as I did. Best regard.
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-30T13:56:34.480Z
Yes, it is true that "most of the simplifications are common in both places", but as a product, if you take it officially, you still need to use the written language of that region.
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-30T21:28:35.597Z
Official differs from commercial. An "APP" usually is for commercial use, and only involves a limited number of words. The things that need to be watched out for are the differences in some technical jargon and localized terms (專業術語和用詞). Thanks for the uptick, it affords five downvotes:)
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-03T18:50:50.903Z
I disagree with this statement of them being common.  Yes its true, for most fully educated *and* exposed to the internet people, reading both simplified and traditional is easy regardless of which you start with.  However even if you only look at those old and young, that is a big part of the population that will not have that experience and is enough to want to offer both.
zagrycha
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-03T19:32:48.927Z
@zagrycha Agreed to disagree.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T01:17:48.950Z
2023-08-30T17:38:35.360Z
2023-08-30T17:38:35.360Z
r13
<p>Probably not. If you can read traditional Chinese, you can read simplified Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T04:23:22.997Z
Don't presume non-mainland Chinese can read all simplified characters, I cannot read 30% of simplified characters, that is unreasonable to not translate simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese and expect me to buy it. Without the help of Google Translate, I cannot fully understand articles in simplified characters
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T08:41:11.040Z
I am bewildered. How did people read SC before translation software became accurate and inexpensive? TC is used only in a small area including Taiwan and Hong Kong. SC is used throughout the world (including SE Asia) and is one of the official languages of the UN. Furthermore, how can anybody who is relatively fluent in Chinese not be able to guess what a SC character is from the context?
fat penguin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T08:54:27.273Z
What are you talking about? Simplified Chinese was only made official in 1956 in mainland China. Maybe Singapore and some parts of the Chinese communities in Malaysia from the 1970s onwards uses it, but hardly any other large Chinese community uses it. SC is also much harder to learn or guess  than TC because SC is based on cursive scribbles rather than character structure - ask any non-Chinese person who uses Chinese characters in their language.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T09:14:23.940Z
Clearly not. SC was introduced during the 5.4 movement as many intellectuals worried about the complexity of TC creating undue iilliteracy. The KMT government abandoned the reform after meeting resistance. In fact SC is nothing new. It goes back who knows when as TC has been too complex for daily use. As for SC basing on cursive scribbles, that's a no.
fat penguin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T09:18:06.483Z
Also for your reference, an Indonesian Chinese newspaper https://www.harian-indonesia.com/assets/file/2023/08/20230829.pdf
fat penguin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T09:21:19.440Z
Yeah, no. Illiteracy was not because of characters, it was because the country was poor and didn’t have a good education system. The Simplification movement started at the end of the Qing dynasty due to unscientific ideas floating around thinking that a European alphabet would solve illiteracy. KMT abandoned Simplified Chinese because it’s useless, and it goes to show that Hong Kong and Taiwan never had a lower literacy rate than China. And yes, Simplified Chinese is based on cursive scribbles - this is very well attested.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T09:36:47.870Z
I was born, raised and  educated in Taiwan. I can tell you that SC is always difficult for me. When I read SC, I need to guess a lot. What is this character and that one? I need to read the context to figure it out.  If I have a choice, I read TC. Whenever I see SC and if it happens to be an important one and online, I always use Google to translate it into TC.
Nobody
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-30T13:50:39.993Z
@fatpenguin, even though I disagree with your point of view, I do not like someone making a negative flag on your answer. I can only reduce one by my own capability, as I did. Best regard.
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-30T18:19:38.980Z
@Nobody "APP", unlike "blog or web article", it usually involves a few functional words only, such as "开启", "关闭", "上传", "下载", "点击", " 储备/存", "资料库", "充电", "机动", "运作", "说明", "继续". Can you provide a list of words in a CN APP that bothered you?
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-31T02:30:00.167Z
@r13 The first one "开启" bothers me already. An app needs to be user friendly. When I see a thing that I am not used to, the reaction is naturally "give up".
Nobody
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-31T04:38:39.407Z
@r13 The TC of "开启" is "開啟". There is not much similarity between the two. If you learn Chinese from TC, it's difficult to figure it out. If this two characters appear in an article, I may be able to guess their meaning from the context. If it's a label of a button, how can I guess it ? Same for "关闭". User interface is critical when you develop an app.
Nobody
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-31T13:12:35.330Z
@Nobody I disagree. With our similar background (born, raised, and educated in Taiwan), you've amazed me by not having exposure to these traditional "簡(寫)字".
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-31T14:04:55.113Z
@r13 "簡(寫)字" is not the same as SC. I was never educated to read and write 开启. There is no 簡(寫)字 for this two characters as far as I know. When I was educated in Taiwan, both SC and 簡(寫)字 were forbidden. If you ever write them, you could get slap on your hand. (I am 70-something old). So, no I don't read 开启 at all. This is one of the reasons I am not active on this site, too difficult for me. Please believe me.
Nobody
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T03:16:45.947Z
2023-08-29T03:16:45.947Z
fat penguin
<p>I am investigating whether a mobile app, which is currently in simplified Chinese (China mainland), should also be translated in the traditional Chinese used in Taiwan, in order to ensure greater diffusion and use by a Chinese user.
My questions:
-What is the language of newspapers, media and films in Taiwan?
-Can a person from Taiwan read and understand Simplified Chinese?
-From a cultural point of view, would a Taiwanese prefer to read the app in traditional Chinese?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>

<translation><taiwan>
Is it necessary to translate an app from simplified chinese to traditional chinese for Taiwan users?
# Is it necessary to translate an app from simplified chinese to traditional chinese for Taiwan users?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-08-28)

I am investigating whether a mobile app, which is currently in simplified Chinese (China mainland), should also be translated in the traditional Chinese used in Taiwan, in order to ensure greater diffusion and use by a Chinese user.
My questions:
-What is the language of newspapers, media and films in Taiwan?
-Can a person from Taiwan read and understand Simplified Chinese?
-From a cultural point of view, would a Taiwanese prefer to read the app in traditional Chinese?

Thank you

**Tags:** translation, taiwan

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-08-28. Score: 5

Is it necessary to translate an app from simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese for Taiwanese users?

Yes. It is necessary for a product in Taiwan.

What is the language of newspapers, media, and films in Taiwan?

It is the traditional character set that is the official and standard written language in Taiwan.

Can a person from Taiwan read and understand Simplified Chinese?

By education only, a person from Taiwan could not read the simplified character. But in practice, many people from Taiwan have little difficulty reading simplified characters.

From a cultural point of view, would a Taiwanese prefer to read the app in traditional Chinese?

Of cause. He or she has been learning it for at least 12 years.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-08-30. Score: 2

Should you offer both simplified and traditional chinese for people in different areas? definitely.

Think of when games offer a british english and american english version. If you are on the other version then the one you are used to, you will see spellings that stick out and distract you, as well as whole words you don't know like blinker vs indicator. Also think of some fonts that are really hard to read, like a really intense cursive handwriting. Combine these together and you have a very rough approximation for the simplified vs traditional chinese experience. Yes most educated people can read both with practice, but it will always feel more comfortable to use the one you're used to.

That said, translation isn't needed. Well to be clear, some minor translation would be ideal to change vocab preferences like the blinker vs indicator example. However a simple conversion of simplified to traditional characters can be done in a single line of programming to alter if the unicode shows as hans or hant, or the text could be manually ran through something like google There are a small amount of characters the conversion would misidentify, but it would have probably 99% accuracy. Almost all chinese webpages and apps have a button programmed in to allow users to choose which they like for good user experience :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You are correct, but, if the distance between British English and American English is 1 meter, then that between Traditional Chinese to Simplified Chinese would be 1 kilometer. Still, it is not very far, just 1-minute drive if you know the way to go. :-)  
> **username_2**: @PdotWang some british and american accents are very different, even different enough to compare to standard mandarin vs sichuan mandarin that aren't mutually intelligible-- of course I wasn't referring to those either, but there are some that are similar to the differences of simplified and traditional in level.  Only similar comparing the level of differences though, english and chinese are so different they don't even work the same way.  None of them are literally the same differences.  Hope that helps clarify what I meant in my comparison (◐‿◑)  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-08-29. Score: -1

**For simple mobile APP, "No"**, because most of the simplifications are common in both places. However, beware of some "function keys" that might have different names, or use different terminologies due to translation differences.

(Content modified on 8/30/2023)

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: even though I disagree with your point of view, I do not like someone making a negative flag on your answer. I can only reduce one by my own capability, as I did. Best regard.  
> **username_1**: Yes, it is true that "most of the simplifications are common in both places", but as a product, if you take it officially, you still need to use the written language of that region.  
> **username_3**: Official differs from commercial. An "APP" usually is for commercial use, and only involves a limited number of words. The things that need to be watched out for are the differences in some technical jargon and localized terms (專業術語和用詞). Thanks for the uptick, it affords five downvotes:)  
> **username_2**: I disagree with this statement of them being common.  Yes its true, for most fully educated *and* exposed to the internet people, reading both simplified and traditional is easy regardless of which you start with.  However even if you only look at those old and young, that is a big part of the population that will not have that experience and is enough to want to offer both.  
> **username_3**: @zagrycha Agreed to disagree.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-08-29. Score: -2

Probably not. If you can read traditional Chinese, you can read simplified Chinese.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Don't presume non-mainland Chinese can read all simplified characters, I cannot read 30% of simplified characters, that is unreasonable to not translate simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese and expect me to buy it. Without the help of Google Translate, I cannot fully understand articles in simplified characters  
> **username_4**: I am bewildered. How did people read SC before translation software became accurate and inexpensive? TC is used only in a small area including Taiwan and Hong Kong. SC is used throughout the world (including SE Asia) and is one of the official languages of the UN. Furthermore, how can anybody who is relatively fluent in Chinese not be able to guess what a SC character is from the context?  
> **username_6**: What are you talking about? Simplified Chinese was only made official in 1956 in mainland China. Maybe Singapore and some parts of the Chinese communities in Malaysia from the 1970s onwards uses it, but hardly any other large Chinese community uses it. SC is also much harder to learn or guess  than TC because SC is based on cursive scribbles rather than character structure - ask any non-Chinese person who uses Chinese characters in their language.  
> **username_4**: Clearly not. SC was introduced during the 5.4 movement as many intellectuals worried about the complexity of TC creating undue iilliteracy. The KMT government abandoned the reform after meeting resistance. In fact SC is nothing new. It goes back who knows when as TC has been too complex for daily use. As for SC basing on cursive scribbles, that's a no.  
> **username_4**: Also for your reference, an Indonesian Chinese newspaper https://www.harian-indonesia.com/assets/file/2023/08/20230829.pdf  
> **username_6**: Yeah, no. Illiteracy was not because of characters, it was because the country was poor and didn’t have a good education system. The Simplification movement started at the end of the Qing dynasty due to unscientific ideas floating around thinking that a European alphabet would solve illiteracy. KMT abandoned Simplified Chinese because it’s useless, and it goes to show that Hong Kong and Taiwan never had a lower literacy rate than China. And yes, Simplified Chinese is based on cursive scribbles - this is very well attested.  
> **username_7**: I was born, raised and  educated in Taiwan. I can tell you that SC is always difficult for me. When I read SC, I need to guess a lot. What is this character and that one? I need to read the context to figure it out.  If I have a choice, I read TC. Whenever I see SC and if it happens to be an important one and online, I always use Google to translate it into TC.  
> **username_1**: @fatpenguin, even though I disagree with your point of view, I do not like someone making a negative flag on your answer. I can only reduce one by my own capability, as I did. Best regard.  
> **username_3**: @Nobody "APP", unlike "blog or web article", it usually involves a few functional words only, such as "开启", "关闭", "上传", "下载", "点击", " 储备/存", "资料库", "充电", "机动", "运作", "说明", "继续". Can you provide a list of words in a CN APP that bothered you?  
> **username_7**: @r13 The first one "开启" bothers me already. An app needs to be user friendly. When I see a thing that I am not used to, the reaction is naturally "give up".  
> **username_7**: @r13 The TC of "开启" is "開啟". There is not much similarity between the two. If you learn Chinese from TC, it's difficult to figure it out. If this two characters appear in an article, I may be able to guess their meaning from the context. If it's a label of a button, how can I guess it ? Same for "关闭". User interface is critical when you develop an app.  
> **username_3**: @Nobody I disagree. With our similar background (born, raised, and educated in Taiwan), you've amazed me by not having exposure to these traditional "簡(寫)字".  
> **username_7**: @r13 "簡(寫)字" is not the same as SC. I was never educated to read and write 开启. There is no 簡(寫)字 for this two characters as far as I know. When I was educated in Taiwan, both SC and 簡(寫)字 were forbidden. If you ever write them, you could get slap on your hand. (I am 70-something old). So, no I don't read 开启 at all. This is one of the reasons I am not active on this site, too difficult for me. Please believe me.  

---

