About Silent World
Four ITB STEM interns from HKBU, PolyU and CUHK recorded the journey of Nora in co-founding "Silent World".
Text/ Katherine@PolyU
Editor/ SWCL
Silent World Co. Limited (SWCL) is a design company aiming at the international market. They mainly focus on B2B/B2G works - B2B (Business to Business) is a transaction between enterprises instead of personal.
On servicing level, SWCL provides their beloved clients with graphic design, comic creation, multimedia production, product design, etc.; existing customers include brand companies, governmental bodies and charities.
About the Co-Founder
Nora takes challenges well after being bullied for years as a Deaf person. Before the COVID era, not only she “sang K” with mates, but also taught herself to dance, and learned to play guitar with the teacher from indie band Franklin Telescope. Nora was born this way. She memorized chord fingerings and used a phone app to tune her guitar.
Growing up, Nora has realized that the society was hostilistic to Deaf people. However, with emotional support from famous public figures like Justin Lo (producer, songwriter, singer), Ali Lee (actor, artist), Stanley Wong (share market analyst). Nora gradually developed trust in people and then she sees the world differently: the world is silent, but some people are speaking up with their attitudes.
In daily life, if you have one convo with Nora using multiple languages and dialects at the same time, it may affect Nora's understanding. "WETV Accessible Media" funded by Community Chest have made these life stories into interesting short films forus to learn more.
Of course looking for a job was unreasonably difficult for Nora. It is often that when an employer is informed Nora is a Deaf person, they stop considering to hire her, regardless the fact that Nora is awesome at photography, drawing, digital marketing, etc. On a personal level, Nora has a good reputation among friends: diligent, always delivering, can-do spirit, witty and generous.
Finally when Nora’s got a job! However, getting along with colleagues has also become a constant challenge. Nora doesn't necessarily know when she's working with a computer and colleagues might be talking to her - at her back, literally. Over time, Nora felt that it was not easy to blend in.
Be the change you want to see
In fact, the “trick” to getting along with Nora is as plain as you can imagine: look at her, let her see your verbal movement, that’s it. Even the pandemic has become the new normal that some people are wearing masks, you’ve got e-meeting tools, instant messaging tools - basically you don’t have to change a thing for Nora - you do your part and Nora will do the rest.
After accumulating more than five years of work experience, Nora incorporated Silent World Co. Limited (SWCL) in 2020. There has been a lack of resources, such as office operations, hiring staff, and purchasing basic equipment for R&D. Nora then listened, made good use of relevant public fundings, worked hard to fill out the forms for her company, and practiced interviews so that the evaluation team could understand Nora’s words. In August 2020, SWCL became a member company of the "Design Entrepreneurship Incubation Program" and received two-year funding and training.
In pursuit of a perfect world, by the imperfect
Perfection is what drives Nora's work. Nora hopes that companies and institutions can make good use of her story, so that teachers and students can get to know the Deaf, students of SEN and the misunderstood, so that her previous experience will not be repeated. She also hopes to promote the mutual understanding of the Deaf and hearing. For example, while Deaf people practice speaking and lip reading, hearing people can talk clearly, avoid mixing languages at the same time (such as Chinese and English), and make good use of body language, etc.
Spanish painter Dali had said: "Don't be afraid of perfection, no one can achieve it anyway". This philosophy constructs an infinite space that keeps people like Nora moving forward, and is reflected in our works for you.