The IDGS on the road: “We want to know!”

24 January 2025, by Pamela Sundhausen

Photo: UHH/IDGS

On Friday, January 24, 2025, Simon Kollien, accompanied by interpreters Ronja Molzer and Julia Ruf, visited Gymnasium ALLEE on Max-Brauer-Allee in the Hamburg-Altona district. The occasion was the “We Want to Know!” day, organized by the University of Hamburg. On this day, exciting facts from the world of science are brought directly into classrooms.

Here, scholars swap from the lecture hall to the classroom and present their research directly to students attending any school in Hamburg. In this case, we visited a classroom and presented on the topic: “We Want to Know: Sign Language – (Not) a Language Like Any Other.”

Simon Kollien introduced the interested students to the linguistic foundations of sign language. Since sign language is also closely connected to Deaf culture, many questions were asked about the lives and experiences of Deaf people. It was a pleasure to share fascinating facts with the young people in such a lively dialogue, and in doing so, checking numerous myths about sign language and Deaf culture.

After the event, the principal of Gymnasium ALLEE emailed us with the following feedback:

“I would like to sincerely thank Simon Kollien and the two interpreters for the wonderful lecture. The 90 minutes were engaging and time flew by; Mr. Kollien interacted fantastically with the students at eye level—he was attentive, empathetic, humorous, and conveyed the topic of sign language with great expertise. He answered all of the students’ questions thoroughly and with genuine interest, creating an open and appreciative atmosphere. Truly excellent! The interpreters were also extremely dedicated, competent, and kind.”

We are very pleased that we were able to live up to the motto “We Want to Know!”