American Sign Language in Taiwan

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
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I’m American, hard of hearing & really miss being part of the Deaf community in the US & communicating in ASL.

I ran into a post by someone who was deaf and used ASL & looking to meet other asl users, put that was 2011.

Does anyone her have any advice for meeting ASL users here in Taiwan. I spend the majority of my time in Taipei, but i move around a lot, so the city isn’t that importante

Thanks!

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Hi David.

They dont use ASL here. They use a different system, which I dont recall the acronym for, but AFAIK there is very little crossover, and what there is would be the very basics. Best of luck.

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You might try contacting the Taipei School for the Hearing Impaired (臺北市立啟聰學校). Someone there might know ASL or be able to point you in the right direction.

If you’re curious what sign language here looks like, the recent presidential debates had sign language translators.

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Thanks for the advice!
I didn’t go into enough detail, perhaps, but I’ve actually taken lessons in time in sign language and while it’s cool, it is, as you mentioned, a whole other language.

What I’m really missing is the ASL Deaf community. I was wondering whether there might be some foreigners here using ASL.

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Reposting (i’m not seeing an edit feature)

Thanks for the advice!
I didn’t go into enough detail, perhaps, but I’ve actually taken Taiwanese sign language lessons and while it’s cool and i’ll keep going, it is, as you mentioned, a whole other language.

What I’m really missing is the ASL Deaf community. I was wondering whether there might be some foreigners here using ASL.

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I’ve only taken about a month’s worth of ASL at an adult school in 2005 (long story), so I won’t be of any conversational value to you (rubs S sign in a circular motion over chest).

I did see some people signing in Taiwan; while I can recognize elements of ASL, I couldn’t pick up anything that was being signed. TSL uses a subset of Japanese Sign Language since Taiwan was colonized by Japan when it was established for the community in Taiwan.

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Hey I’m interested in learning ASL and live in Taipei. Would you want to trade some ASL lessons for something like Kung Fu lessons (I can explain how the ASL movements can be used in Kung Fu)

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