Lily was born in Penang, the second largest city in Malaysia, to Chinese parents who met while working in Malaysia and settled here. Her parents' jobs were international trade-related, so they had the opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of cultures and languages. She stayed in Penang until she started school and enjoyed a carefree childhood.

Image:

Penang, a literary town that brings you back to your old dreams of Southeast Asia

https://pic1.zhimg.com/70/v2-c92206e120ec140c5ad5a16e89b4fbfd_1440w.avis?source=172ae18b&biz_tag=Post

Because her parents are both Chinese, she would occasionally follow them to visit their elders in China. She began to be interested in Chinese culture. During her time in China, before she started elementary school, her family bought some English language books and traditional Chinese books for Lily to learn, which was Lily's first exposure to learning a second language.

IMAGE：

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2F699pic.com%2Ftupian%2Fshenzhen.html&psig=AOvVaw3FAEvLUsZvNNg2dwZyEmBS&ust=1714654184126000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCNjRzea-7IUDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Lily returned to Malaysia and went to school in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, attending a Chinese school where she made many good friends and adapted to the cultural environment and style of teaching.

Lily's grades were very good throughout her elementary school years because she had parents who helped her get started. This made her character very achievement-oriented, no matter what the subject was. The teaching style in this school is test-oriented, so the teacher usually lectures and the students sit down and listen, and a test will be arranged from time to time. This method of learning caused Lily to be frustrated when she would run into English-speaking people asking for directions, but she did not know how to speak the language.

As she entered middle school, Lily worked hard on her grammar and vocabulary, which kept her in the upper echelon of her class.

Image：

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fukchina%2Fsimp%2Fvert-tra-44199013&psig=AOvVaw293-rQRWwXTtttf9HCh3FS&ust=1714654946431000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCIDwuszB7IUDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Lily is an only child and speaks Chinese at home with her parents and occasionally with her elders, so Lily's first language is Chinese. She also has some Malay-speaking friends, so to a certain extent Lily can communicate with them in Malay as well. When Lily is at school, she is taught in Chinese most of the time, but her English classes are half-Chinese and half-English, and the content is based on textbooks.

Of course, after school, her family found her extracurricular classes, which, in addition to studying art, also included English, which was taught in pure English, although the main content still fit in with the school textbooks.

Image：

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdepositphotos.com%2Fcn%2Feditorial%2Fkuala-lumpur-malaysia-december-2019-young-kid-girl-eating-sizzling-511507270.html&psig=AOvVaw0DpN_gm5zCEpCbPGFN5OGB&ust=1714703637949000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCKDM4P327YUDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Lily had a wonderful teenage years in Malaysia. However, when Lily was 14 years old, her parents wanted to quit their jobs and take her to live in another country. They had a few goals to consider, but they had to wait until Lily graduated from junior high school before deciding. They also knew that Lily's exposure to Eastern cultures would make her feel uncomfortable if she were to change to a new cultural environment. So they decided to wait for Lily to graduate and then Gap for one year to bring her to a new environment to get used to it before going to school.

Image：

https://mk.chinapress.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/jam-mk220609-tch02-noresize.jpg

After Lily graduated from junior high school at the age of 15, his parents took the plunge and quit their jobs in Malaysia and found a new international trade-related job in Australia, so Lily moved to Australia with his parents. After arriving in Australia, Lily went to an intensive language program for six months, but this was not enough for Lily to integrate into the school. However, this was not enough for Lily to integrate into the school because everyone at the school was fluent in English and all subjects were taught in English. After the intensive language program, Lily insisted on reading English books aloud every day, and because of her personality, she soon acquired more and more communication skills. In their spare time, his parents also took her to interact with the outside world as much as possible, traveling regularly as well as participating in interest groups. This enabled Lily to communicate fluently with her counterparts, as long as they didn't speak too fast or slur their words.

Image：

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/JAN2020_Box_Hill_Central_Shopping_Centre.jpg/1920px-JAN2020_Box_Hill_Central_Shopping_Centre.jpg

After Lily continued her high school education, she realized that attending school in Australia required not only communication skills, but also the ability to understand the terminology of her field of study, which led to his grades not being as good as they were in Malaysia. In the classroom, the teachers in Australia gave Lily a completely different feeling from the teachers in Malaysia, which was a bit hard for Lily to accept. In the intensive language program, most of the students were still Asian, but now most of the students in the classroom were Westerners. The unfamiliar environment made her feel flustered, so much so that her social circle was still with the Asians. But she is also eager to be exposed to Western culture and wishes she could have a few local friends. So all these factors piled up together to boost Lily's determination to learn English.

Image：

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Box_Hill_Station_Street.jpg