Why learn Turkish?
Turkish is a fascinating language. Learn the Turkish language and you will have access to an important world language. With Hands on Turkish you can learn Turkish for business, for travel or for tourism.
- 75 million people speak Turkish as their first language.
- 15 million people speak Turkish as a second language.
- In Germany Turkish is the second most widely spoken language after German.
Turkey – A strategically important country
Turkey is strategically connected – geopolitically and culturally – to Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East. It is the world’s 16th largest economy. A knowledge of Turkey and Turkish are valuable assets sought by corporations, NGOs, government agencies, and research institutions. Learn Turkish and stand out from the crowd.
“If you address someone in their native tongue, they are 10 times more likely to buy from you — whatever their competence in English.”
Turkish for business
Companies in Europe are attracted to Turkey as a supplier for textiles, electronics and other products. Development Agencies throughout Europe are actively encouraging businesses to engage with Turkey, which is emerging as an economic powerhouse and an engine for “new growth”.
And yet many of the people inside the businesses often do not have the necessary linguistic skills and cultural understanding to deal with the challenge of doing business in Turkey. Consequently they run the danger of making basic and avoidable mistakes.
With Hands on Turkish you can learn Turkish for business and improve your chance for success – whether you are dealing with Turkish companies or embarking on trade missions. Study the language of business and learn about Turkish business etiquette.
Learning Turkish – Current situation
Many existing courses of Turkish tend to attach importance first and foremost to vocabulary, structures and grammar. In other words, they adhere to traditional concepts and use outdated language learning methodologies. They also frequently neglect the ever more important aspect of cultural awareness and fail to recognise that a learner needs to be culturally competent in order to understand a language and interact adequately,
This requires a different kind of course to the ones on offer.
Many online eLearning courses rarely progress beyond “books on screen”. These courses are frequently presentational. The learner needs to bring considerable cognitive and analytical skills to the job of learning a language. Few people have the time or academic skills to learn successfully with such products.
Pedagogical approach
The pedagogical approach of Hands On Turkish can be described as a cognitive constructivist approach to learning, in particular language learning, which is combined with the currently available technology of desktop/laptop computers, tablet computers and smartphones. This approach sees learning, as does Common European Framework of Reference, as an active process and learners as active meaning makers.
Learners will be guided by a task-based approach through a series of units, modules and steps to acquire Turkish and an awareness of Turkish culture.
The Hands On Turkish approach is particular suited to non-academic learners and vocational learners who are not in full-time study.
The team
Hands On Turkish has been developed by a team of academic experts, teacher trainers, programmers and publishers from four European countries.
Our mission
All of this has one goal.
- Make Turkish accessible to non-academic learners.
- Boost the self-confidence of the learner.
- Dispel the perception that Turkish is a difficult language to learn.
Our story
HandsOnTurkish has been developed with support of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme.
This online course of Turkish was funded as a Transfer of Innovation project within the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. It aims to build on the success of Arabic Online (arabiconline.eu), which won the European Language Label for 2013.
The online Turkish course combines modern technologies and the most up-to-date approaches to language learning. It aims to deliver a modern course of Turkish that meets the needs of general learners, students and European businesses.