The Project idea

New business language in Europe. Language acquisition: Polish-Turkish-German (German as a Foreign Language) with an emphasis on tourism and commerce.

Why TRIALOG? Poland, Turkey and Germany – respectively an old EU country, a new EU country and a candidate EU country– all cooperating together in TRIALOG!

Turkey and Poland have a very special relationship to Berlin. On the one hand, a large number of immigrants in Berlin come from Turkey and Poland. On the other hand Berlin, Istanbul and Warsaw have had partner city status for a long time. And the Polish border is only a stone’s throw from Berlin. TRIALOG’s great innovation is based on accentuating two languages, Polish and Turkish, which have been rarely recognized as business languages. What makes the project commercially noteworthy is the dual goals of directly qualifying the trainees and the importance for the Berlin economy in the growing industries of tourism and services.

Those working in tourism and hospitality deal with people from foreign countries and cultures everyday, and that’s why it is especially important and necessary for the trainees to now have the possibility to improve their knowledge of foreign languages and broaden their cultural horizons to advance their careers for today’s job market.

Linking language acquisition with practical training significantly increases the trainees’ qualifications, leading to enormous advantages when looking for a job. The project is directed at trainees as well as language teachers, knowledge disseminators and companies in the tourism and hospitality industries. We focus on the tourism branch where communicative capabilities are especially important and where the job market is no longer constrained by national borders.

Under the leadership of the BGZ, our partners from Turkey, Poland and Germany are also creating intercultural manuals and developing technical language courses and didactic guides for further vocational education in the fields of tourism and hospitality. The materials are practical and activity-orientated. They encourage independent learning while teaching foreign languages and intercultural sensitivity.

Twelve project partners in three countries represent established institutions in the following areas: educational facilities, linguistic institutes, companies, educational authorities, industry associations, PR organizations, and supporting partners in various EU countries. By coalescing partners from Germany, Poland and Turkey in TRIALOG, an extraordinary cooperation group has been formed to develop innovative project material and to establish sustainable measures for further occupational training.

TRIALOG is a project that can be transferred to other languages and disseminated. Everyone can profit from TRIALOG: The employees, by achieving technical qualifications; the trainers who get practice-orientated language courses and the curriculum; and the employers who benefit from a staff that has been perfectly trained according to their demands.

The project contributes to empowerment, since it supports the idea of life-long independent learning. At the same time, it strengthens intercultural and linguistic competences as well as advancing occupational mobility within Europe. New European perspectives in cooperation are opened in the fields of education and commerce in respect to the job market in the tourism industry.