We Are Together: Teambuilding to Take Another Step Towards Linguistic Inclusion

Last week, on 21-22 April, the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation successfully held a teambuilding We Are Together at the Pushkin Children’s Health Centre, Astrakhan Region, involving hearing and deaf students of ASU, as well as deaf representatives of the Astrakhan youth. Within two days, the teambuilding participants had to pull together, because in order to pass the sports quest, the teams had to work together, overcoming not only the tasks of the quest, but also the linguistic barrier and stereotypes about communicating with deaf and hard of hearing people. The program of the event also included an educational part: a lesson by Antonina Shikhova (a visiting lecturer from Moscow, an RSL native speaker, who, by the way, taught the first group of attendees of the RSL courses at CITS) and a lecture on social labels by Vera Shamayeva, Deputy Chair of the Saint Petersburg Branch of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf and the Youth Policy Advisor to the President of the Central Board of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf.

Hearing and deaf participants were able to gain new knowledge and practice RSL with Antonina Shikhova and learn some new words. Then the teambuilding participants watched the film CODA which won a number of awards, e.g., three Oscars, including one for Best Picture. The entertainment part went on with a concert, where both deaf and hearing participants performed on stage. Interpretation of the entire concert was provided by a graduate of our RSL courses.

After all the teambuilding activities and the concert, the participants kept on socializing: they subscribed to each other on social media and made friends. On the second day, they took part in a volleyball match with professional referees, and the teams were mixed again: deaf and hearing participants contest the victory side by side.

This project, implemented by the winner of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation’s competition Practices of Personal Philanthropy and Altruism, was aimed at bringing the worlds of hearing and deaf people together, and the goal was successfully achieved. The invaluable experience gained from teambuilding will contribute to further projects of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation.