I was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1979. When I was 2 years old, my family moved to Cheshire, England (just 15 miles south of Manchester). 

I led a peaceful childhood, growing up in a pleasant village environment. I have three older brothers so I was always involved in group activities with them and other children of various ages. We attended local schools and were members of the youth club, the choir, the tennis club, the local town rugby club, the scouts and more.

My village also had an exchange program organised with a town in France called Albi. Even before I was old enough to join myself, I remember having French children staying in our house, playing together and exchanging languages. When I finally got to go on one of these exchange trips myself, it really opened up another world for me. I realised how challenging yet rewarding it is to speak another language. Being able to communicate with my host family wasn’t easy at first, despite having learnt French at school, but soon  I started to get the the hang of it and by the time I returned to England I was near the top of my class.

These early experiences lit a fire in me and set in motion my passion for learning languages.  Once I’d finished school, I spent several years in Europe, learning French mostly, but also German, Italian and Spanish. Then, in late 2007, I moved to Thailand and ended up staying for several years. I learned my first Thai words on the plane (Sa-Wat-Dee) and never looked back. Nowadays, I am fairly fluent in Thai and have started learning Chinese too. My own language learning experience helps me understand the challenges English learners face and has helped me develop effective methods to improve quickly.