我只学习简体字。对我们西方人来说想要精通数以千计的简体字是很困难的。所以，我只是被动地学习正体字。散乱的汲取一两个词汇。其中一个学习简体字的主要目的是提高阅读能力。作为一个成年人（当然包括我啦），自从我只开始学习中文，我希望在中文写作上尽可能快地达到流利程度，并且学习两套汉字会减慢我的速度。况且，大多数中国人只熟悉其中一套字体，所以我又为何想要与众不同呢？我又不是一个语言天才，况且生命是如此短暂以至于我无法掌握两种汉字。

I only study simplified characters. Mastering thousands of simplified characters is difficult enough for us Westerners. 我只学习简体中文。要掌握成千上万的简体字对我们西方人来说太难了。 Therefore, I only learn traditional characters passively, picking up one or two here and there. 因此，我只是偶尔学习一点繁体字。有时候从这儿找一个，有时候从那儿找一个。 One of the primary purposes of simplified characters is to increase reading literacy, and since I only started learning Chinese as an adult, that certainly includes me! 学习简体字的主要目标之一是能够提高阅读能力。作为一个刚开始学习中文的成年人，这当然也是我的目标。 I wish to achieve fluent literacy in written Chinese as soon as possible, and studying both sets of characters will only slow me down. 我希望我能尽快地用中文流利地阅读和书写。如果同时学习两种汉字，那只会减慢我的速度。 Besides, most Chinese are only familiar with one set of characters anyway, so how could I expect to be any different? 而且大多数中国人也仅仅是熟悉一种中文（简体或者繁体。），所以，我怎么能期待自己与众不同呢？ I'm not a linguistic genius, and life is too short to master both sets of characters." 我不是一个语言天才，而且人的一生很短暂，我想我没有必要浪费时间去学习两种汉字。

我只学简体汉字。掌握上千简体字对西方人是很难的。因此我是被动的学习繁体汉字，在这里或那里学到一两个。简体汉字的一个基本目的便是提高识字能力，而我是作为一个成年人才开始学中文的，这当然就包括我啦!我希望能尽快写出流畅的汉语，而同时学习两套汉字势必会减慢进度。更何况大多数中国人只熟悉一套汉字，我为什么要不同呢？我不是语言天才，掌握两套汉字实在很难在一生中实现。

都翻译得很好.. 但是我想你在这句中"Mastering thousands of simplified characters is difficult enough for us Westerners.” 想表达的是 “要掌握成千上万的简体字对我们西方人来说已经够难了。”

“ Therefore, I only learn traditional characters passively, picking up one or two here and there. 因此，我只是偶尔学习一点繁体字。有时候从这儿找一个，有时候从那儿找一个。” IMHO, I'm afraid Tala, didn't get the meaning of "pick up". And besides, Tala didn't translate "passively" into Chinese which I think should not be omitted. Correction: 因此，我只是被动地学些繁体字，很随机，碰到一个学一个，不太系统。 “Besides, most Chinese are only familiar with one set of characters anyway, so how could I expect to be any different? 而且大多数中国人也仅仅是熟悉一种中文（简体或者繁体。），所以，我怎么能期待自己与众不同呢？” “我怎么能期待自己与众不同呢？” this doesn't sound authentic in Chinese and was translated literally from English. It will sound better if you say in this way. "我又有什么两样呢？" As to the last sentence , my version is "我不是个学语言的天才，对我来说人生太短远不够掌握两套汉字啊。" Not all utterance in English can be literally translated into Chinese. That's because not all words, phrases and sentence patterns have an equivalent in another language. It's ok to do literally translation if you just want to get meaning across, but that's far from being authentic in the target language. The beauty of a foreign language lies in its difference to your mother tongue. The world sounds different when we use another language to describe and see it.