Trainers
Andy Crosthwaite
After completing my university studies I worked in finance for a couple of years and quickly decided that there was more to life than this! I packed my bags and headed off to London at the age of 25 to start a new life. This was quite daunting at first as I hadn't travelled much at this stage. However, I quickly settled in to London life and fell in love with travelling. As a base, London was a great starting point to explore Europe. I spent two years there working hard to save money for my frequent holidays. Highlights were a month spent skiing in the French Alps and exploring the Greek Islands.
My brother's wedding gave me a reason to come back home and catch up with everyone in Australia but my feet were still itchy. A friend suggested a holiday to Thailand and I jumped at the opportunity. I spent three months travelling around Thailand and Cambodia and had an amazing time. Ridding a motorbike around Cambodia is one of my favourite memories of all time.
The holiday had to come to an end and I returned to Australia and went back to the wonderful world of finance. I really liked my job but I just couldn't stop thinking about travelling. Every spare moment was spent researching and finding about different places. This is how I discovered teaching English. I knew the first thing to do was to get qualified and I finished my TESOL certificate and then intended to head to Japan to teach English. My first stop was Thailand for Christmas and New Year. However, I made it no further than Thailand. I fell in love with the tropical climate, amazing cuisine and friendly people. For the next three years I called Thailand home. I started off teaching in English camps on the east coast where I taught kids from 4 up to 16 how to rock climb, swim, dance, sing, etc. It was an amazing experience and a great way to begin my teaching career. From here I moved to Bangkok to teach in a private language school. At this school the students were all aged 15 and older but unfortunately I couldn't teach them how to rock climb! I did however get to teach them general English and also instructed in several skills classes which were very rewarding.
My overseas work and travel experiences have been the most rewarding of my life. I feel privileged to be able to help people experience what I have experienced. It is an amazing world out there and teaching English is a great way to be a part of it!
