A Sociolinguistic Study on Deaf People and Their Sign Languages in Asia

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In this research, the situations of deaf people and their sign languages in Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand were investigated. The main items to be discussed here were: (1) deaf society, (2) education for the deaf, (3) information guarantee, (4) studies on sign languages.In these three countries, laws for disabled people have assured their fundamental rights and their living environment has taken a favorable turn. However, the training system of sign language interpreters is not working well.The national sign language problems in Vietnam and Thailand exist because they have a lot of dialects due to the topographical problems. This makes it difficult for them to establish a standard national sign language. Now they are researching the diversity of dialects and trying to overcome the problems blocking their attempt to standardize their sign language.Through this research, it has been clearly shown that deaf people are moving towards solutions for the political, legal, educational and linguistic problems they are facing. They are involved in many activities which are more advanced than those in Japan and their attitude towards becoming more involved in general society is very positive. Especially, in Vietnam and Thailand, they have turned their attention towards deaf education problems, particularly those of tertiary level education for deaf people. The educational situations in these two countries can be good models for Japan to review its tertiary education system for deaf people. It is strongly demanded by them in order to elicit their abilities, and to raise their educational level.