Why does Taiwan often use the Simplified Character 台 for ‘tái’ instead of the Traditional Character 臺, despite the official policy of using Traditional Characters?
Originally Answered: Why does Taiwan often use the simplified character ‘tai’ 台 instead of the traditional character?
!!! I asked my Taiwanese friend this once when I kept seeing both 台灣 and 臺灣 on different street signs, I was so confused.
She had said that 臺灣 was more a traditional, formal way of writing it and also 台灣 is easier to write. I mean, look at the amount of strokes on 臺 and think about the time you could save on writing it in the simplified character instead.
Mostly, it just really boils down to the sake of convenience.