To cut a rather long story short . . .
A Londoner by birth, I spent most of my childhood years near Eastbourne on the
south coast of England. Teenagers from all over Europe have traditionally flocked to
such seaside resorts for home stays and intensive English courses during their lengthy summer vacations.
Exchanges with many of them for mutual language development had a
profound influence on me at an impressionable age — on gaining my
independence at 18, I left family and friends and headed off north to
Scandinavia.
After one year at a Swedish folk high school, I
landed a job at Stockholm's International Airport — first as a check-in
clerk, later on as an aircraft load planner and ground services coordinator.
Another seven years on, making a clean break with the travel industry, I
sold my Volvo to take degree courses in modern languages at the
University of Uppsala. I could never have guessed I would
eventually end up teaching English in far-away Japan.
Work on this Web presence began
as far back as 1998, originally to put my own local English school on the map.
With the addition of more and more themed links and EFL resources, I
increasingly found myself catering to an international audience.
During 2009 this site registered hits from no fewer than 197 identifiable countries and
territories — North Korea, it seems, still surfing incognito.
Roughly half of you kind folks log on in North
America — not at all inappropriate seeing as my ma was born in New York City and
still holds
a U.S. passport. Wherever you happen to be in the world, thanks for
dropping by and making it all worthwhile!
David V. Appleyard
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