Hi,

So, it’s a complicated case- which ones aren’t?

The patient writes and speaks Cantonese.  She is bulbar onset and quite capable of writing.  However, her daughter, with whom she lives, and other adult children in the area do not read Cantonese.  I do believe they speak and understand Cantonese.

The patient, at this time, is not interested in technology, at all.  She does report, through an interpreter, that she is “sad” and “misses the idea of communicating”.  She is speaks very little and does not appear comfortable in sharing feelings or emotions- which could be consistent with cultural norms.

We will be working with her teen-aged grandchildren who own iPad devices to see if the text to speak apps will be an option for her.

Thanks everyone for your help!

From: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com [mailto:xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Lisa Bardach
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 10:35 AM
To: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com
Subject: Re: Cantonese

VidaTak makes EZ boards (low tech) in many languages, including chinese, and they have an iPad app called VidaTalk that can be purchased for $89.99 in the app store that is Chinese.  I contacted the company about Mandarin vs Cantonese, and I was told that both the EZ board and the app are in Simplified Chinese. 

According to a couple of different websites, Simplified Chinese was introduced in the 1950s in the People’s Republic of China as part of language reforms to increase literacy. As the name suggests, it’s a simplified version of Traditional Chinese: the reforms decreased the number of strokes by an average of one half and simplified the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. This simplified character set appears in all print media in Mainland China and Singapore. Over time, the two language versions have also diverged in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Modern terms such as ‘software’ or ‘network’ have different translations in Simplified Chinese (SCH) and Traditional Chinese (TCH) respectively.

I think it's important to note that Simplified Chinese is a written language rather than a spoken one.  Makes you wonder what the text-to-speech will come up with?  I did check the keyboard options in the iPad, Simplified Chinese is a keyboard option.

I found these websites helpful

http://www.simultrans.com/education/articles/29-translation/190-whats-the-difference-between-simplified-chinese-and-traditional-chinese

http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/article84.htm

Lisa

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Lisa G. Bardach, MS CCC-SLP
Communicating Solutions, LLC
2314 Yorkshire Road
Suite 200
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
phone (734) 973-9670
fax     (734) 975-6970

ALS of Michigan, Inc.
24359 Northwestern Highway, Suite 100
Southfield, MI 48075
248-354-6100 x227

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