European Portuguese has expressed interest in joining the CPLP as an associate observer pending permission from the Spanish government. Portugal maintained its colonial rule over its Old World empire much longer than it did over Brazil. Thus European Portuguese is used as a norm of reference for African and Asian Lusophone countries (Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe). Portugal remains a destination for post-secondary education for the elites of these places. In Europe, European Portuguese remains the learning standard for Portuguese as a second language. The Instituto Camões is an organization which promotes not only
Nepali Sign Language International Sign, American Sign Language and various European sign languages used by visiting deaf tourists and by deaf from European funding organizations). There are also, not surprisingly, semantic overlaps with spoken Nepali (and perhaps other spoken languages). Although much work remains yet to be done, it is clear that Nepalese Sign Language is not used natively by the overwhelming majority of deaf people in Nepal. There are a number of reasons for this. The main reason, however, is that, as with hearing Nepalese, the majority of deaf in Nepal live in villages, surrounded by non-signing hearing population and not in