Portuguese language in Asia joined the CPLP shortly after its independence at the turn of the 21st century. Indonesia has also expressed interest in joining the CPLP. The Instituto Camões maintains language centres in Macau, Goa, Busan and Dili. In Asia, Standard European Portuguese (português-padrão) forms the basis for the written and spoken norm, exclusively to East Timor and Macau. Portuguese language in Asia The Portuguese language is spoken in Asia by small communities either in regions which formerly served as colonies to Portugal, notably Macau and East Timor where the language is official albeit not widely spoken, or of Lusophone immigrants, notably the
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