Jeff Tompkins is a writer and teacher of English as a Second Language living in New York City. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1967 and was educated at Brown University and University College ...

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. Teenagers have ...

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. My relationship with English began by force. Growing up in A Coruña, ...