Ni hao,
I just recently joined ChineseClass101.com about two weeks ago. I've been navigating through the site to understand all of the features and casually listening to the podcasts to understand what is in store for studying Chinese.
I have also studied some Japanese so I know a little kanji. It seems that Chinese uses two styles of characters (traditional vs. simplified).
Does anyone have any suggestions on which characters I should choose to focus on? Like how I should decide?
If I focus on simplified characters will I be able to read traditional if I travel to places like Taiwan or Hong Kong?