What is the difference between Putonghua and simplified Chinese? Is there a difference, I just read a job post where they are asking for someone who has a strong command of Putonghua.

by Franklin Bick

Answered by Cui Cui:

Putonghua Is a common and official spoken language around the mainland of China while there are dialects in different places in the country. Some dialects are easy to understand but others are really just like another language so for the common communication,We use putonghua as the official oral language version.

For the simplify Chinese ,that is from the writing perspective. The Chinese characters had a change order a lot from the ancient times to modern. Although simplified Chinese is easy for us to write and the recognize, ancient forms also very charming.