Click Here to Access Simplified PDF Transcripts (used for China, Singapore)
Click Here to Access Traditional PDF Transcripts (used for Taiwan, Hongkong)
What’s the difference between simplified and traditional PDF lesson transcripts?
The difference is in Chinese characters. In simplified transcripts simplified Chinese characters are used and in traditional-traditional Chinese characters. Traditional characters is what was used in China before 1949. After People’s Republic of China was declared, Chinese government made a reform of the writing system in order to eliminate the illiteracy among Chinese peasants. A part of this reform was to throw away some strokes of the characters and make them easier to write and to learn.
However in Taiwan, where it’s still officially the Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are still used. In Mainland China, all books written before 1949 are using traditional Chinese characters, including those written thousands of years ago, like Tang poems, etc. Other than this, there is no difference in the transcripts, we use phonetic alphabet Pinyin in both versions.