Thank you so much for answering it was a big help! Sorry my questions were kind of vague, haha. More specifically, does the Taiwanese government regulate TSL interpreters? Like is there a committee of interpreters or something? And I read that a few Taiwanese Deaf people don't view themselves as having a unique culture for being Deaf. Have you noticed this to be true? Again thank you so much, you're a great help!
Hey there! Sorry for the slow reply – I wanted to have a chance to talk to one of my teachers, as I wasn’t too clear on some of the details. I hope you still have time to write up your paper!
So first a little bit of background: I have class with two teachers, one Deaf and one hearing. The Deaf teacher went to all Deaf schools and has been teaching TSL to hearing people for some time now (I don’t actually know how long though), and the hearing teacher has worked as an interpreter for 10+ years, and has also been teaching for a while. The information about Deaf culture mostly comes from my Deaf teacher and the information about interpreting comes mostly from my hearing teacher, since she’s more familiar with that side of things.
The government does indeed regulate TSL interpreters, partially through education/training (by offering free or low-cost classes) and partially through certification. The Ministry of Education also plays a role in this, as it has created and promoted Signed Chinese [um, this might get a bit confusing but I believe that there is an important difference between Signed Chinese (capital S) and signed Chinese (lower case s), which is that Signed Chinese follows written Chinese grammar (i.e. Mandarin) much like Signed (Exact) English, and that signed Chinese is more-or-less the analog to fingerspelling in ASL (i.e. a way to express a written word of a language)], but not everyone totally follows it.
Interpreter certification is split into three levels: A, B, and C (or in Chinese 甲、乙、丙). A is the highest level, qualifying the interpreter for any situation, including presidential speeches, news reports, and so on. C is the lowest, qualifying the interpreter for day-to-day affairs, including doctor visits, job training, etc. B falls somewhere between the two, I suppose being able to handle more technical language, as with higher level education, the law, and so on. (x) Testing for Level C happens at least once a year (x), but I haven’t found any info on how often testing for the other two happens.
The test itself covers interpretation going both ways and (if memory serves) a written test, where the examinee must answer questions about sign language grammar/terminology and social services for the d/Deaf/HOH. The examinee is evaluated by a committee of Deaf educators (that is, educators who are d/Deaf/HOH) and hearing interpreters [I remember being told it was three of each, but then I found a document saying two of each, so…], but I’m not clear on how they get selected for the job. The testing is, as far as I can tell, handled mostly by the Ministry of Labor, but the training may be covered by another department.
Regarding the culture bit, let me first put on my linguist hat and say that where there is language there is culture. The d/Deaf/HOH people here in Taiwan who sign most certainly have a language that is distinct from the spoken languages here, and so they make up a culture that has distinct characteristics. Now, how to answer the question of whether or not there is a distinct Deaf culture in Taiwan depends on what we mean by culture: are we talking about culture in a high level sense (i.e. the kinds of art forms we appreciate) or in a low level sense (i.e. how we live our lives and interact with one another)?
I consulted with my Deaf teacher, and she mostly agreed with what you’ve read, that there is not so much of a unique Deaf culture in Taiwan, and that for the most part their culture is the same as hearing people. One possible reason for this is that mass audio-visual media (TV programs, movies, etc.) are nearly all broadcast with subtitles – not closed captions, so no sound effects or clarifying who is saying what, just the dialog. [The preference for subtitled TV and movies may be due in part to Taiwan’s multilingual background, and that not everyone may be comfortable with spoken Mandarin (or other languages), but the expectation is everyone can at least read Chinese.] There are a few notable exceptions to this, including certain parts of broadcast news as well as some commercials, but for the most part d/Deaf/HOH people in Taiwan can watch TV and movies without too much to worry about. Additionally, there is one TSL-based program that airs weekly called 聽聽看 as well as short snippets of the news translated into TSL, but the timing is not so great according to my teacher. One more notable bit of TSL-based media is the movie 聽說 [while the majority of the movie is in TSL, I do have to point out that the main characters are not d/Deaf/HOH and neither are the actors – d/Deaf/HOH actors do appear in the movie, but they are supporting cast only].
Because of all this, I think that d/Deaf/HOH people in Taiwan can enjoy much of the same culture (in the art sense) as hearing people, and so they may not feel their culture is all that unique or distinct. That being said, I think there are a few notable differences in how Deaf people express themselves and interact with others that may not get called culture, but still forms a part of the culture as a whole. For example, it may be considered a faux-pas by hearing people to refer to someone by, for example, pointing out a mole or birthmark, but that would be natural to a Deaf Taiwanese person. Similarly, hearing people are generally more uncomfortable making certain gestures that a Deaf person would have no such problem doing: for example, the sign for “so-so” or “average” is the middle finger outstretched with back of the hand facing way, and moving the hand back and forth left to right – this sign tends to make beginning (hearing) students blush a bit, but is a part of the language to Deaf people.
[Another fun example is the sign NOT-HAVE, which is signed with the palm of the hand facing up and the fingers repeatedly opening and closing. This sign is usually accompanied with a non-manual movement, in this case the tongue sticks out slightly and “waggles” back and forth. Beginning students are often uncomfortable with this part, and I think it’s because there is a taboo against showing the inside of one’s mouth. Why hearing people have this taboo, however, is not entirely clear to me.]
Last bit: I recently came across an academic paper on TSL that said the most common translation of 台灣手語 into English is “Taiwan Sign Language”, not “Taiwanese Sign Language”. I think on my blog I’ve mostly used “Taiwanese Sign Language”, so I’ll go ahead and change that at some point. I’m not sure why the “-ese” is absent, but the name choice may be based off of other sign languages like Hong Kong Sign Language or New Zealand Sign Language, both of which lack the demonym suffix “-ese” or “-er”.
Good luck with your class!