Last month and despite the difficulties of the current economic situation, the Azerbaijani government announced that it was increasing by nearly 50 percent its funding of a program that supports Azerbaijanis studying at universities abroad, both a recognition of the success this program has had over the last decade and an indication of the importance Baku is now attaching to using such training to transform domestic educational institutions and promote the development of the country. For a country seeking to overcome the constraints of the Soviet past and to move into the future, there i...

The spread of the English language across the world over the past 50 years has led to its status as a global language, a lingua franca in institutions such as finance, business, media, science, education, and diplomacy.  People teach English for a variety of reasons, from a love of teaching and language, to the opportunity to travel and learn about cultures around the world; my motivation is the prospect of fostering communication with the goal of understanding and resolving conflict.  My students are scientists, diplomats, educators, and graduate students in international affa...

I am often asked as a language teacher, why I chose to be a teacher.  Quite often, the question actually comes from my own students.  My usual simple and generic, yet sincere, response is to make a difference in the lives of others; specifically, to help the students be successful in their own lives, to in turn, make a difference in the lives of others.  However, earlier this year, one of my students asked me the same question in the middle of a class and the response was expressed with much more detail.  I must have needed to talk about my life story that day, becaus...