In Intermediate Chinese, my students are responsible for a little more than 600 characters. That number includes a review of high frequency items, so the weekly character assignment load is relatively high, 25/week.
The following gives a quick study of those characters and how their teaching would be affected by shifting from traditional to simplified forms.
111 characters out of more than 600 show some saving. That's about 18.5% But many of those savings result from regular replacements, so having learned one alternate form makes writing several alternate composite characters possible.
The breakdown is then as follows:
46 simplified characters are unique savings.
33 characters serve as regular simplified components in many other characters
So the individual who knows some 600 Chinese characters in one system would have to learn 79 alternate forms in the other system. That means that there is about a 13% overhead involved.
At a conservative rate of 20 assigned characters per week, it would take four weeks to make a complete change-over. Spread over 30 weeks or so that would require students to learn around 3 alternate forms per week.
糸 as a component has a regular replacement form in simplified.
娄,婁 basic component
戋,戔 basic component
车,車 basic component
专,專 basic component
佥,僉 basic component
贝,貝 basic component
见,見 basic component
门,門 basic component
儿,兒 basic component
马,馬 basic component
来,來 basic component
为,為 basic component
业,業 basic component
并,並 basic component
发,發 basic component
页,頁 basic component
会,會 basic component
气,氣 basic component
与,與 basic component
带,帶 basic component
买,買 basic component
单,單 basic component
将,將 basic component
冈,岡 basic component
争,爭 basic component
长,長 basic component
军,軍 basic component
几,幾 basic component
东,東 basic component
风,風 basic component
贵,貴 basic component
卖,賣 basic component
Forms that cannot be derived using the above substitutions:
难,難
还,還
开,開
么,麼
过,過
后,後
实,實
帮,幫
关,關
处,處
当,當
样,樣
对,對
准,準
备,備
兴,興
无,無
吊,弔
农,農
战,戰
师,師
从,從
飞,飛
听,聽
声,聲
识,識
运,運
书,書
干,幹
丰,豐
学,學
亲,親
体,體
写,寫
头,頭
队,隊
应,應
让,讓
爱,愛
进,進
声,聲
离,離
党,黨
伤,傷
势,勢
