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Nicole la Hausse de Lalouviere: â€œI hope to contribute to protection of cultural heritage in Azerbaijanâ€

15 July 2008 11:03 (UTC +04:00)

-Director of British Council representation in Baku is not known in Azerbaijanâ€¦.
-I have been working with British Council since 2001. I was a senior adviser for vocational education in London and I moved to China for five years and I was in charge for vocational education, English and schools in China. Before joining the British Council I worked in English language teaching as a teacher, lecturer, trainer and head of department, a whole range of jobs, in universities, in colleges and in technical education centers. I am originally from South Africa. I was working in South Africa, France, Turkey and Libya. I think education is at my heart. I think the British Council is a fantastic organization to help me to achieve my own goals. We are in Azerbaijan as a part of South-Eastern Europe region. This is one of the British Councilâ€™s 13 regions globally. The British Council is looking at working across and within the regions. We are working on the certain key projects, under umbrella of climate change, for example English, arts and civil society. Within the internalization program our organization developed the global products like international sport excitement, which is carried out in tens of countries. This project involves children with less opportunity in the worldwide process through the sport. Other global product is the international art ownerâ€™s prize. This project is carried out in nine countries, including Azerbaijan. Winners of the project are sent to Edinburgh theatre festival. In Azerbaijan director of Buta Cultural Center won this prize.
-What other projects are you planning to implement in Azerbaijan?
-Next week we are working with the Ministry of Education on the two-week English training course project. Sixty teachers from seven pilot schools in Baku have been chosen to be trained by the Azerbaijani trainers come through the British Council programs. The Ministry of Education asked us to work on identifying the English training program in Azerbaijan and also asked us to provide with the date about the English training programs in other parts of the world. For the first time the Ministry of Education is funding the training course like this. We are working with BP on training program for journalists in business writing. Our projects target a whole range from schoolchildren to professionals like journalists. Cultural relations are at the center of all these. The cultural relations are important for young people especially.
-What are priorities of your activity?
-I have different priorities and main priority is English teaching. I am considering the work we have done across the world and I am thinking to implement this experience in Azerbaijan. We held a meeting in Istanbul last week and talked about how to use these products in Azerbaijan. One of the global products is the booklet prepared for the parents of children involved in English courses. It helps parents to encourage their children while they are learning English, tio understand how their children is learning English. There are many families in Azerbaijan where parents are working and mostly grandparents care about the children. Therefore we need to organize English courses not only for parents, but for grandparents too. We can organize TV program for that.
-What British Council has done for protection of cultural heritage in Azerbaijan?
-I am living in Icherisheher (Old City). I am very lucky that I have a beautiful view on to the Caspian Sea, Maiden Tower, minarets and winding streets where children are playing. I can hear the muadzeen from the mosque calling everybody to pray. My brother is working for UNESCO in Mauritius. He sent me articles about Azerbaijan through his friends at UNESCO. The British Council is addressing the heritage issues, but it doesnâ€™t address it in Azerbaijan yet. I hope I will contribute to this sphere.
-Do you know Azerbaijani music?
-I knew Azerbaijani music from the performance of young Azerbaijani Sabina Rakcheeva studying in Britain. She is young, but she is a member of EU Parliament of Culture. She achieved success in the world synthesizing Iraqi, Azerbaijani, African and Chinese music and showing that peoples can better understand each other through the music. Azerbaijani music is very beautiful. I know Azerbaijani and Iraqi mughams.
-The British Council has certain problems with Russian government. Is there any problem with government of Azerbaijan?
-We have very good relations with government of Azerbaijan. We are working with a number of ministries. There are very good relations between Azerbaijan and Great Britain. I heard that most of elite people or their children are studying in Grate Britain.
-What term of activity the British Council is planning in Azerbaijan?
-The British Council has 70-year activity. We opened and closed different offices in that period. We started with one office and now we have 229 offices in 110 countries across the world. We have opened our last two offices in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are moving to the new office in Azerbaijan and it shows that we have long-term plan to stay in Azerbaijan.