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Salaam Aleihum from AZERBAIJAN

Emails from Azerbaijan

I greet you from our sunny country. ... my students will take part in this project in September.

Our students are on holiday now. They will be back in September and will be glad to take part in the projects. I have a lot of students and colleagues who are eager to make friends with people from faraway countries.

The majority of my students are rather fluent in English as they begin to study it from the age of seven or eight. Our first language is Azeri but almost all people in my country speak Russian too. Besides English, other languages taught in our school are German and Arabic.

My students have a wide range of interests which include sport, art and international relations. We would be glad to build international links and to have friends in different countries. We hope to learn many things - the way you live, study, have fun, work and so.

We are ready to provide everyone who is interested with any kind of information about Azerbaijan, a country with very ancient history and colorful traditions. I am sure there is so much between our students to be shared.

I want my students to learn English well. I would be glad to learn about your methods of teaching. ... I don't know if you know or not but Azerbaijan is one of the countries of former Soviet Union. Since we won independence we have been changing our educational system.

Emails about Azerbaijan

I want to write to you about Azerbaijan. It is really a very nice country. Its territory is 86,600 square kilomeres and its nature is very colourful. We have mountains, steppes, rivers, lakes; in short, everything that nature can give to people.

We also have many natural resorces. Azerbaijan is known to the world for its oil.

Our country used to be part of the USSR and after its collapse our country became independent. But with it began great problems ... We were at war with Armenia (another former USSR country) between 1990 to 1994 - at the moment there is a ceasefire.

We have many holidays, both international and national. We celebrate New Year, Woman's Day, Novruz, Ramazan (Ramadan), Kurban and others.

Postings from Azerbaijan

I live in Goychay. It is one of the towns of Azerbaijan. We are an independent country. We were one of the republics of USSR, but in 1991 we won our independence. By the way, the day before yesterday - October 18 we celebrated our Independence Day. We are happy to be independent. There are different nations in our country: Turks, Russians, English, Lezgins, Kurds, Iranians, Talish and many others. Their rights are protected by our government.

I live in Goychay. The capital of Azerbaijan is Baku. Goychay is 250 km from Baku. I learn different subjects at school. I like school very much. I like history and English literature but I don't like handicrafts. I like sport and play volleyball.

I want to write you about our school. Our school is a large building. There are 1500 students in our school. We study at school 11 years. We are 25 in our class - 9 girls and 16 boys. We wear uniform. We learn English and Russian. I like to learn languages. We have sport lessons at school too. We play football, volleyball and basketball. I also like computer games.

Salaam Aleihum - The Novruz Holiday

We have many interesting holidays. I'll tell you about the Novruz holiday. Novruz is celebrated on the 20 and 21 of March at the beginning of Spring.

Novruz means "new day". It is the best holiday for Azerbaijanis. The history of this holiday is very ancient old so nobody can say when people began to celebrate it.

It may be interesting for you to know that we begin to celebrate Novruz a month before. It lasts 4 weeks. Every week on Tuesday (it is called Charshanbe) every family sits around the holiday table. People make bonfires in the yards and jump over them. There are 4 Charshanbes before Novruz. They mean Land, Fire, Water and Air.

Before Novruz, families clean their houses and yards. Everything must be clean. People buy presents for each other. After a month of preparation Novruz is celebrated and the holiday itself lasts 2 days.

On these days women cook different dishes and cakes. Our national meal called plov must be prepared. Also very tasty cakes are cooked (Pakhlava, Shekerbura, Badambura, Shorgogal etc).

On Novruz Eve there must be samani on the tables - it resembles grass and is the symbol of Novruz. We dye eggs in different colours.

Children play a game called Kosa-Kosa. On the Novruz evening children take their caps and go to their neigbours. They put their caps in front of the door, knock and hide. The owner of the house must put sweets, cakes and dyed eggs into their caps. Also we make a bonfire in the yard and jump over it.

Read the WIZ information on AZERBAIJAN

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