Dave Sperling

Dave, Ben, Dao, and Shannon Sperling
(taken in the 1990s*, but still one of my favorites)

I first "met" Dave Sperling (Dave's ESL Cafe) online in late 1995; we got together face to face for the first time at the 1996 TESOL conference in Chicago. At that time, Dave's very popular website had been online less than a year.

In the early days of "The Cafe," I was heavily involved with its Help Center, contributed frequently to the Quiz Center, Idioms, Phrasal Verbs, and "Hint of the Day" subsites and also regularly spent time in the chatroom, "Chat Central." Those were heady days—a period when "The Cafe" went through many changes and steadily rose to the degree of popularity it has today. It was wonderful to have been part of those early efforts; looking back now, however, I wonder how I found the time! (I know how Dave found the time: he went without sleep.) I'm not very involved with the site now (though I'd still like to be), unfortunately; as I've gotten older, I've slowed down and had to divert my time and attention to other things.

Something very precious emerged from my association with "Dave's Cafe": becoming friends not only with Dave but also with his beautiful wife, Dao, their two very individualistic children, Ben and Shannon, and Dave's father, Joe. I treasure my friendship with the Sperlings: they made me feel part of their family long ago, and that deeply touched me then and continues to touch me now.

I'm very pleased that Dave Sperling's efforts have brought him success. He deserves it because of the monumental amount of work he's been putting in for over ten years—and doing so without any support staff in order to keep much of the Cafe free despite the ever-increasing costs of making it available. (No, Dave doesn't have a herd of underlings and he doesn't work out of a glitzy corporate office: headquarters for "The Cafe" are wherever Dave finds himself—for example, at Starbucks—with his laptop.)

Someone once said "Build it and they will come." That's what Dave did and that's what happened. I wish him continued success. As I said before, he deserves it.

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* For a look at the Sperlings today, see Thailand 2007: Family Photos