About us:

The Intercultural Youth Magazine trait d'union (hyphen) is a platform of intercultural communication and cooperation for and by young people, especially students and their teachers, all around the world.

trait d'union stands open – without age limit – for the students, trainees and teachers of all kinds of educational and vocational facilities, but for other young people, like unemployed, refugees and migrants, as well. On the one hand participating in trait d'union can be an element of creative and communicative learning processes, e.g. within the framework of (interdisciplinary) subject teaching. On the other hand also the trait d'union products may serve for teaching purposes.

Founded by students and teachers of the German School of Toulouse (France) and the Lycée Polyvalent International Victor Hugo of Colomiers in 1999, trait d'union was both result of and framework for several European Comenius school projects and was therefore supported three times by the European Commission. Since its beginning, 27 schools from 14 countries and 5 continents (but principally from Europe) have contributed in 30 languages.

The general aim of trait d´union is to support intercultural competence, being a key qualification in the era of globalization, both on the professional and the social level. This is why students from different countries und cultures work together, discussing topics of common interest and contributing both individually and in (international) groups. Through this kind of cooperation the participants do not only learn about different cultural perspectives, but also gain experience about the advantages and difficulties of intercultural team work – and about ways to find common solutions.

Adapted to their respective circumstances and needs, the participating persons and institutions may choose freely between the basic orientations (journalistic or creative ones), the media (e.g. texts, pictures, audios, videos), and the genres (e.g. reportages, comments, interviews / stories, poems, dialogues). The participators post their contributions (or even drafts and half-finished products) on the “trait d’union” website, where they may be commented by the partners in an open-minded and respectful way, in order to initiate an intercultural exchange of experiences and views and even enabling joint (border-crossing) contributions. The postings can be seen by everybody, but only the registered members can publish and comment them.

From trait d´union - coming out irregularly, depending on the projects it is used for - there is an online and a printed version. Each issue has a central theme, intended to be interesting for young people and at the same time relevant for teaching purposes, like “Our future” (2002), “Courage” (2006). “Integration or separation” is planned to be the next topic (coming out in 2018).

Since the school year 2015/16 the Gisela-Gymnasium in Munich is the coordinating institution of trait d´union. Former coordinating schools were the German Schools of Toulouse (1999-2004) and of Bilbao (2007-15) as well as the Michaeli-Gymnasium in Munich (2004-07).

We invite you cordially to participate in trait d´union, especially for our next central theme “Integration or separation: How do we want to live?” Being a minor, you need the agreement of your parents. If you are member of an interested group, the responsible person, e.g. the teacher of a class, is kindly asked to send us first a list of the group as a whole. Please use our registration form.