In this context (of Andrew-Lin's post), "Traditional Chinese" and "Simplified Chinese" refer to the written characters, not to how the language is spoken. The traditional characters are generally less complicated, less "busy," that is, they require fewer strokes to write. As Andrew-Lin explained, they were developed to improve literacy, but another reason is that they are easier to read on TVs and computer monitors (especially on the standard definition displays of the previous century, before the prevalence of HD).

One disadvantage of simplified characters is that many Chinese dictionaries arrange words by stroke count (the number of strokes required to write the character) rather than alphabetically by pinyin; yet, many of these dictionaries count the number of traditional strokes required to write the character even if the character printed is in a simplified form that requires fewer strokes to write, with the result that simplified characters do not always appear in the dictionary where the reader might expect them to. (It would be as if the word "thru" were listed somewhere between "throttle" and "throw" because the traditional spelling of "thru" is "through.") With many characters there is no difference, but the stroke count of the traditional characters is more obvious.

Another disadvantage is that some of the meaning is lost along with the simplification. By "meaning," I mean, the etymology, mostly, that is, the origin of the word, but I also mean the extent to which the character is a graphic representation of its referent.

One example that illustrates both of these disadvantages is the character for "cart," whose traditional form is 車 ，but whose simplified form is 车 . The traditional character requires 7 (that's right: 7, not 8) strokes to draw; whereas the simplified form looks as if it could be drawn in 5 strokes (or maybe 4); yet, even dictionaries printed in simplified Chinese would include the simplified form among the 7 stroke characters. Moreover, notice how the traditional character for "cart" actually looks like (a schematic drawing of) a cart. There are 2 ways to see it. You can imagine the 2 long horizontal strokes at the top and the bottom as the wheels of a 2-wheeled cart (such as a rickshaw), with the "box" in the center as the passenger or payload compartment, and the long vertical stroke as the axle that runs through the center of the wheels; or, you can imagine a 4-wheeled cart, in which case the 2 horizontal strokes at the top and bottom are one axle each, the "box" in the middle is still the chassis, and the long vertical stroke is what holds the cart together (or like the drive train of a car), in which case the 4 wheels are not depicted (but are implied at each end of the top horizontal stroke and the bottom horizontal stroke). The simplified form was derived from this traditional form, but it's a mess inasmuch as you cannot tell what you're looking at.

By the way, the same goes for simplified spellings in other languages: whenever a spelling is simplified, the word's etymological history generally becomes less clear.

Often we can't report anything, as the only option shown is "The audio is incorrect". So as far as I am aware, this is the ONLY place to let someone know. IF this isn't the case, I would love to know where one can report these things. thanks

I agree with you on learning English translations right away. Pairing sounds with pinyin and hanzi is important, but for a fresh Chinese learner, understanding is just as important. Having access to definitions at the start would be a step in the right direction. I enjoy the lessons for other languages duolingo has developed, pairing new words with pictures, but I could do with new vocabulary paired with definitions.

I think you missed adding the 也 in the last example, but otherwise this was really helpful to me

Thank you