It's an interesting point--I underestimated the difficulty of learning to handwrite characters. Knowing simplified I can read traditional pretty effortlessly an

It's an interesting point--I underestimated the difficulty of learning to handwrite characters. Knowing simplified I can read traditional pretty effortlessly and even communicate with a relative in HK typing in traditional, but cannot write it by hand from memory. I liken it to being able to read but not draw the Gothic "T" in the New York Times. Still, I'd claim that regardless of the direction, learning the simplification map (and some patternless exceptions) is a small incremental task compared with the thousands of hours learning the broader language. What's a few hundred mapping rules + exceptions, after learning 3000+ characters? If someone asked me which character set to start with, barring real issues with availability of education material, I'd say to learn whatever you want if you're committed to it! Just be ready to spend a few hundred more hours at least due to the increased amount of information to memorize in traditional.