I am Jhong-Han Wu, from Taiwan. I have a hearing impairment. There are four members of my family: myself, my parents, and my younger sister.

After I left school, I worked for two years as a contracted employee of the government. After that, I spent about 18 months in Australia and Ireland on a working holiday, visiting many places and meeting many foreign people. At that time I did not have much knowledge about people with disabilities. I was an orienteer in 2009 Taipei Deaflympics, so of course I knew a little bit about deaf people, but I had no knowledge of international or Taiwanese sign languages. I grew up in hearing people’s culture, so my means of communication, and my thought patterns, were those of non-deaf people. It was then that a hearing friend of mine who works for a deaf association in Taiwan told me to apply for the Duskin Leadership Training program—an opportunity to fully engage myself in training to interact with people with disabilities. Unbeknownst to myself at the time, this became a turning point in my life.

Before coming to Japan I thought it was unnecessary to study sign language in Japan because I had studied Japanese for one month already at a Japanese juku (tutoring school attended after the regular school hours). I found out I was wrong. When I was in conversation with hearing people in Japan, I could not really understand the Japanese they were speaking, and I could not understand sign language at all. I felt totally beaten.

For three months, our Japanese teachers taught us key vocabulary, grammar and essay writing. The sign language lessons were not only enjoyable, but also an opportunity to gain important knowledge. I began to take interest in sign language and began to have more interactions with others in sign language. It was truly enjoyable to be able to connect to Japanese deaf people and interpreters in sign language.

At the end of the year, and over the New Year, I had a wonderful experience of staying at the home of the Furukawa family in Aomori Prefecture. Having lived in the world of hearing people, it was the first experience for me to live with a deaf family. Both the family and I were worried about communication at first, but soon we found out that we could easily communicate in sign language, putting an end to our worries.

While I stayed with the family, we cooked together, and they took me to wonderful places, like tourist spots and a scenic spot with a beautiful snowy landscape. In the New Year, we celebrated the Japanese New Year with the family’s friends. The young daughter of the Furukawa family taught me sign language and skating, and we played together like a real brother and sister. At the end of the home stay program, the family gave me a gift and a hand-made photo album. I was deeply touched.

I had so many wonderful experiences during the home-stay program. The family was so kind. They were like friends to me. I will never forget this experience. I was so happy to meet the Furukawa family.

Nanafukuen is a home for elderly deaf people, elderly people who lost their hearing at some point in their life, and elderly people with hearing difficulties. It is a home where these people can live with a sense of security even if they cannot hear. It intends to be a place where 1) people can communicate freely and 2) deaf people can contribute to the local community. The concept that elderly deaf people need a place where they can communicate freely, is very important.

Let’s compare Taiwan and Japan. There are many general elderly people’s homes and services for the elderly in Taiwan, but very few homes for elderly deaf people. It is still at a developing stage. Facilities for elderly deaf people are very important. Elderly deaf people will have communication problems if they go to general elderly people’s homes. They will not be able to communicate with other elderly people, and that can isolate themselves and accelerate the process of ageing. As there will be more and more elderly people in future, this is a very important issue to consider.

.At NPO Japanese ASL Signers Society, I was given my first ever opportunity to learn how to give a presentation in sign language. When I was a student, I gave all my presentations and speeches vocally. The sign language presentation methods were totally different from vocal presentation. I had to learn the right posture, the right sign language expressions for a public presentation, and the hands’ position and facial expressions for sign language. These were all very important to know. Finally, I gave a 1-hour speech in sign language in front of the audience who gave me a feedback. I learned methods to continuously improve my future presentations, for example using that feedback.. During the subsequent training, I had several occasions where I was asked to give a presentation. Thanks to the experience of the presentation training at Japanese ASL Signers Society, I was able to give the presentations confidently.

Ever since I was in Taiwan I had known the term “deafblind,” even though I had never met any deafblind person in real life. At SMILE, I received training where I learned about deafblind people, and how to support them. I was also able to interact with deafblind people, using tactile sign language.

I learned about how to help deafblind people as an interpreter, on the actual work site. Interpretation by tactile sign language and finger Braille is useful for deafblind people because deafblind people have both hearing and visual impairments. But it is rather hard to help deafblind people with interpretation. For example, if a deafblind person wants to visit a museum, the interpreter needs to explain the exhibited item’s shape in tactile sign language so that the deafblind person can have an image of what the artifact look like. Namely the interpreter needs high interpretation skills so that the interpretation can convey the accurate image of the artifact.

I saw items hand-crafted by deafblind people, and their Japanese drum performances. It totally took me by surprise. The items were immaculate and wonderful with multitudes of colors. At first, when I was told they were going to give a Japanese drum performance I could not really believe it. How will they do it? The deafblind people beat the drums when the hearing people behind them gave them a signal, tapping their shoulders. It was an astounding, wonderful performance. I was also given an opportunity to accompany a deafblind person, running together. I think I will be able to do this in Taiwan too, because I have been given guidance about the technique and what to watch out for, while running alongside a deafblind person.

Everyone at SMILE was very kind, had a strong character, and was very positive. They were also very fun, and told me – I knew nothing at the time – about tactile sign language, deafblind people’s culture, and other information concerning deafblind people, in great detail. Everyone at SMILE was very hard-working and courageous. They taught me a lot about life. The most important thing I learned at SMILE was the importance of communication. For deafblind people, it is very difficult to communicate their emotions and thoughts. Interpreters play a great role there. First, it is very important for the deafblind person and the interpreter to build trust. Then, through the interpreter, the deafblind person begins to gain information, and realize his / her rights for knowledge. It is impossible for people to ignore deafblind people’s voice that comes out of such processes, so communication begins to happen, both ways. From the deafblind person to the people, and vice versa.

When I was at university, all my classmates were hearing students, so I can say I grew up in the culture of hearing people. At Tsukuba University of Technology, for the first time in my life I had a chance to study with students with a hearing impairment. Our teacher, Osugi sensei, taught us theories related to hearing impairment, sign language linguistics, and sign language survey methods.

I have a hearing impairment, but I never saw myself as a deaf person because I lived in the world of hearers. This changed after the training in Japan and I was able to accept the fact that I was someone who could not hear. I had so much to learn from the community of deaf people and people with other disabilities, and also from their life stories. More than anything else, learning sign language deepened my understanding of deaf culture. It had a big impact on my way of thinking. For me, hearing people’s culture and deaf culture are both important. It is important to be fair to people with disabilities and have respect for each other. More than anything else, empathy is very important.

I have goals on three levels.

Short term: learning Taiwanese sign language, and supporting the 8th Asia Pacific Deaf Sports Games

I have managed to learn Japanese sign language, but I still cannot communicate in Taiwanese sign language. So first I want to learn Taiwanese sign language. Then, I would like to use my Japanese and Taiwanese sign languages to support the Japan team in the Deaf Sports Games held in Taiwan in October.

Mid-term: I would like to be involved in many activities of the deaf association. After amassing experiences there, I would like to develop sign language interpreters. If there are more sign language interpreters, it will lead to more employment of deaf people, and eventually dissolve discrimination deaf people experience at work.

Long-term: I would like to participate in deaf conferences of the Asia-Pacific region, or global conferences, and relay international information to deaf people in Taiwan.

The 10-month training in Japan became a big turning point for my life. I gained a wide range of knowledge, and deepened my understanding of how to understand and empathize with people with disabilities. This is something I was not able to do before. After I go back to Taiwan, I will devote myself to the development of deaf community. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone from the Duskin AINOWA Foundation, Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, Toyama Sunrise, my Japanese and Japanese sign language teachers, my host Furukawa Family, and everyone at my training destinations. I am also thankful to my fellow trainees, we helped each other for 10 months. Thank you so much.