Amid the earth-shaking headlines this week, one headline in particular has caught the attention of both students and teachers of English alike: Skype is shutting down. A representative of Microsoft said in a blog post , “We will be retiring Skype in May 2025 to focus on Microsoft Teams.” Like many people, I was a little taken aback by the announcement, having used Skype since its release in the first decade of this century. The platform has enabled me to keep in touch with friends and family, in addition to facilitating countless English lessons with people in different countries. The word 'Skype', like 'Google', inevitably became a verb as people began 'skyping' each other back in the 2000s, with 4 billion registered users by 2019. Undoubtedly, Skype has helped to shape modern communications, and it played a particularly important role during the pandemic, when competing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet also kept people connected. Microsoft Teams has gro...
The words of an EFL teacher