If you do not learn traditional Chinese characters, you can not really understand Chinese culture. Japan, Korea, Vietnam also use the traditional Chinese characters in many places. The Simplified Chinese characters are the communist's characters which had been transformed by the instigation of the Soviet Union. Simplified Chinese characters only are 60 years old, but traditional Chinese characters have had an unbroken history of over 5,000 years. How can the sixty years' culture compared with the five thousand years' culture? Simplified Chinese Characters are fake Chinese characters. Only traditional Chinese characters are true Chinese characters. Please see the book about traditional Chinese characters - "China: Empire of Living Symbols by Cecilia Lindqvist": http://www.amazon.com/China-Empire-Symbols-Cecilia-Lindqvist/dp/0201570092 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/405964.China

1. Traditional Chinese Characters - used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and just about all other ethnic Chinese groups around the world. 2. Simplified Chinese Characters - used in Mainland China and Singapore. Cantonese is the official mother tongue of the Hong Kong people. It is also the "mother tongue" of all Cantonese on the Mainland, but so is Mandarin. For some years now, Hong Kong kids have been getting schooled in Mandarin, so soon everyone in Hong Kong will be speaking Mandarin, too. If you like the Traditional characters, learn those. You're right, they're easier to learn and remember. You'll also find it useful for Japanese, too.

It's not a problem to learn simplified characters or traditional characters, all the Chinese people can read both. Although we mainland Chinese people use simplified characters, some ancient literatures were still published in traditional characters and the students majoring Sinology use school books in traditional characters. Which one to learn is depend on your purpose. If you want to throw yourself into Sinology researching, you must study traditional characters. If you just want to commnicate with Chinese people, both is OK. As for the degree of difficulty, what Eliot said is reasonable. Writing simplified Characters can save your time, but remembering those is harder. I cannot describe the reason in English,so give an example, after you haved learned the Greek word "manthanein", it's easy to remember "mathmatics", but what "math" is when you first read it?

I don't think its a good idea to learn Mandarin and Cantonese. In fact they are two kind of language, though both of them use Chinese character. You could learn Mandarin and Traditional Chinese, most of Cantonese are able to speak and understand Mandarin, but little Mandarin speakers are able to speak and understand Cantonese. About learning Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. My advice is, if you have enough time and energy, you could learn Traditional Chinese, That is real Chinese. Of course, you can also learn Simplified and Traditional at the same time and find out the differences if you like.

Simplified Chinese characters are easy, Traditional Chinese characters are hard; Simplified Chinese characters are addictive, Traditional Chinese characters are healthy; Simplified Chinese characters are indifferent, Traditional Chinese characters are emotional; Simplified Chinese characters are disappointed, Traditional Chinese characters are excited; Simplified Chinese characters are dazed, Traditional Chinese characters are energetic; Simplified Chinese characters are disheartened, Traditional Chinese characters are inspiriting; Simplified Chinese characters are fake, Traditional Chinese characters are true; Simplified Chinese characters are ugly, Traditional Chinese characters are beautiful; Simplified Chinese characters are mean, Traditional Chinese characters are generous; Simplified Chinese characters are cruel, Traditional Chinese characters are kind; Simplified Chinese characters are vulgar, Traditional Chinese characters are elegant; Simplified Chinese characters are humble, Traditional Chinese characters are noble; Simplified Chinese characters are cheap, Traditional Chinese characters are priceless; ... For example: Traditional Chinese - 愛 (with 心) = Love (with heart) Simplified Chinese - 爱 (without 心) = Love (without heart)