To bring you this site has taken me approximately one month of ten hour days and seven day weeks - spent mostly squinting in front of my computer. You may well ask "Why would anybody in their right mind do that?" Apart from the obvious answer that I am not infact "in my right mind", I have three main reasons.

Firstly I want to encourage and help EFL teachers wherever you are in the world because I (at least) think you deserve encouragement. You do a difficult and important job and not many people seem to realize that. It is a sad fact that people in western countries tend to measure a profession by the length of its training and size of its salary rather than by the value provided to society. This places accountants and stock-brokers in the highest esteem but leaves EFL teachers often embarrassed about their choice of job. In Japan, where I have just finished working, it is not uncommon to meet English teachers who, when they first introduce themselves, claim to be something else ("Hi, I'm Mark. I'm a martial arts instructor - but I'm teaching English at the moment"). Anyway, I hope you feel encouraged, flattered by the attention and proud of all the hundreds of hours you've spent preparing classes - even the ones that the students didn't like much!

Secondly, I wanted to try to make use of some of the handouts that I once invested so much time in making. I've only been using a computer for the last three years but somehow I managed to leave my last job with over a thousand documents on disk, not to mention the box-load of hand written materials from earlier jobs. I did think about approaching a book company but I guessed they would have said "no". Because the material was written for very specific students, it probably wouldn't have a universal enough appeal to fill a "photocopiable compendium" with things that every teacher would want. Also, a lot of it probably wouldn't meet their high standards.

But a web-site, on the other hand, isn't constrained by the same profit / quality requirements. If a few people visit the site and find just a handful of useful items, I will feel it has been a success. And if you do find things that you like, the chances are that I have more of that style on disk so it may be worth getting in contact and asking me just in case.

My final reason is a little more selfish. I am in fact no longer teaching - no really, that is true for the moment. I am currently studying "web design" in England and as a requirement of my course, need to produce a web site, both for practice and as part of the portfolio I hope one day to be showing to potential employers. So, maybe now this doesn't seem quite such a crazy thing for me to be spending all my time on.

For teacher training courses, English courses in Bristol UK and free interactive exercises, visit The Language Project Website.