teth wrote:Actually, Mandarin is a dialect. People in mainland China use simplified Chinese characters, whereas people from Hong Kong and Taiwan use traditional ones (they speak Mandarin in Taiwan too).
Both sets of characters share same characters for some words. There are some differences of course but one should be able to understand/guess the meaning of the other set. In Japan, they use characters from both kinds. (However, of course, Japanese also made up characters or used some for meaning that are not the same in Chinese.)
Even sharing characteristics, it still takes a moment for it to click in your brain that it's like "oh that's that!" Or thinking in your head what each part means.
Kind of like when you can't read someone's handwriting.
Just saying it was probably overwhelming for her, which is why she seemed confused.