Eurasia.net: Since moving to Termez for his studies, the strangest thing for Asadullah Azizi has been to hear Uzbek spoken everywhere. The 24-year-old is himself an ethnic Uzbek, but his mother tongue gets little public exposure in his native Afghanistan. “Uzbek for us is a language for the street and the home. We Afghan Uzbeks only talk our native language among family and friends. But we cherish it, because it is the cultural heritage of our ancestors. And here, in Uzbekistan, it’s the main language of the country,” Azizi, who has seen little beyond his hometown of Sheberghan, around 135 kilometers west of Mazar-i-Sharif, told Eurasianet. Click here to read more (external link).