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The most important thing you need to know is that this classification revolves around the characters used. Here is why. Since its birth, Chinese was always written in characters that closely resembled those of the hieroglyphs or picogrammes and over a long period of time became more complex, hence requiring more complex strokes - this is what is generally referred to as Traditional Chinese. On the other hand, Simplified Chinese as the name suggests, rendered the writing of certain pictograms easier by reducing the number of lines and hence limiting the total number of characters. This was a result of deliberate efforts undertaken by the Chinese government in mainland China to make the language more simple and accessible. Today, Simplified Chinese is largely used in the Mainland, while traditional Chinese is more common in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken dialects of Chinese. Generally speaking, Simplified Chinese is mostly associated with the written form of Simplified Chinese, while Cantonese is mostly associated with the written form of Traditional Chinese. Chinese is an all encompassing umbrella term for all dialects in mainland China as well as outside China. To this end, Cantonese and Mandarin are classified under the term Chinese and in fact, both of them share the same base alphabet but there is a catch; as spoken languages, they are very distinct and are not mutually intelligible. Geographically, the Cantonese dialect is found in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao and the larger Southeast Asia region. To compare, just look at how the German language has diverse dialects like the Bavarian, Swiss and Hanoverian dialects but, all these dialects are under one umbrella term called the German language. Other Chinese dialects include: Min (闽语 / 閩語 / mǐnyǔ) Most Chinese immigrants to Southeast Asia speak the Min dialect. It is also spoken in the province of Fujian, in south-eastern China. It is also spoken by some groups from the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, southern Zhejiang and Taiwan. The xiang (湘 语 / 湘 語 / Xiangyǔ) Mostly spoken in Hunan Province it has about 36 million speakers. Interestingly, Xiang was chairman Mao Zedong's mother tongue and since he spoke it better than Standard Mandarin, he encouraged the usage of this dialect as the national dialect for the country during his reign. Hakka (客家 话 / 客家 話 / kèjiāhuà) With about 34 million speakers, it is spoken in the northern part of Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan. Jin (晋 语 / 晉 語 / jìnyǔ) Its geographic distribution covers most of Shanxi province. Hui (徽 语 / 徽 語 / huīyǔ) It is spoken in the southern province of Anhui as well as parts of neighbouring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Some linguists consider it a variety of Wu, while for others, it is part of Gan. Ping (平 话 / 平 話 / pínghuà) It is a dialect that is very closely related to Cantonese. It is spoken in parts of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous province, as well as in Hunan province. Gan (赣 语 / 贛 語 / gànyǔ) Spoken in Jiangxi province and has about 31 million speakers. It is mainly spoken in Jiangxi, and in neighbouring provinces. Wu (吴语 / 吳語 / wúyǔ) Wu is largely spoken in Shanghai municipality and although it’s spoken by almost 14 million people, it has been losing ground.

Written Chinese happens to be generally standardized - unlike spoken Chinese. In fact, the written Chinese language is generally considered by historians as a unifying factor in Chinese history since it transcends the differences between the Chinese dialects. That’s why speakers of dialects like Cantonese or Mandarin, will write in the same standard Chinese - albeit with minor differences.

Chinese belongs to a family of languages called the Sino-Tibetan languages, which is a region largely covering South Asia East Asia, South-East Asia and Central Asia. One of the most interesting things about Chinese is that it is one of the few ancient languages which is still spoken to date. As a matter of fact, it appeared almost 2,000 years before Christ. Because of its longevity, it has gone through a few evolutions with the most conspicuous one being its classification into simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese.

Yes, we have a long history of working with government clients and are currently a trusted panel provider to various government procurement panels at both the Federal and state levels. In fact, we have been a trusted panel provider for more than 12 years, and have a proven track record of delivering high-quality translations on time and on budget for a wide range of government agencies. We are proud to be a reliable and trusted partner for government translation needs and would be happy to provide references or case studies related to your requirements.

Yes, as a specialist provider to Government, we have extensive experience in working with government clients and have a proven track record of delivering high-quality translations on time and on budget. Our team has translated a wide range of documents for various government agencies, including legal documents, health-emergency content, fact sheets, ministerial announcements, policy documents and much more.

Yes, we have a team of experienced translators who are able to handle large volumes of translation work in a short time frame. We also have a network of trusted translators that we can bring on to help with particularly large or time-sensitive projects.

We have a rigorous quality assurance process in place to ensure the accuracy and quality of our translations. All of our translators are native speakers of the target language and have extensive experience and training in translation. In addition, all our professional services options are reviewed by a second translator for accuracy and consistency before being delivered to our clients. We are also certified to the ISO 27001 standard for information security, the ISO 9001 standard for quality management, and the ISO 17100 standard for translation services, which further demonstrates our commitment to delivering high-quality translations to our clients.

We take the handling of sensitive or confidential material very seriously and have strict protocols in place to ensure the security and confidentiality of all content. All content is translated on LEXIGO's proprietary platform (as opposed to individual computers and devices). We are also certified to the ISO 27001 standard for information security, the ISO 9001 standard for quality management, and the ISO 17100 standard for translation services, which further demonstrates our commitment to maintaining the highest levels of security and confidentiality in all of our work. All of our translators and staff are required to sign confidentiality agreements and undergo background checks. In addition, we use secure file transfer protocols and have secure servers to store and transmit documents.

If revisions or changes to the original document are needed, we will work with you to make the necessary updates in a timely and efficient manner. We understand the importance of accuracy and will do everything we can to ensure that the final translated document is of the highest quality.