Bios

My name is Tan Ying in Mandarin, and Tan is my family name. In China we put our family name in front and it is followed by the first name. But here people usually call me just Ying, and I have to write my name in a different way as well.

I have been living in Canada for two and half years. I learned English before I came here. Before I came to Canada, I had a good career in China. I was born in Hunan Province and after I graduated from college, I worked in 5 different cities, and did different jobs related to computer science. As I majored in Computer Science, all those jobs I did before was relatively related to each other, such as training teacher in a computer training center, web designer, UI designer, product management, and customer service manager. The company I worked the longest for was a Singapore company, which had a branch in Beijing. It’s a company which services publishing houses and magazines. We provided eBook services for them or customized software for them to publish their own eBooks. We serviced customers from the USA, Europe, India, Singapore, China, etc. I was responsible for training customers and new staff, troubleshooting for the software, trying new techniques for eBooks, creating animations, editing PDFs, coordinating with engineers and customers and so on. I loved my job a lot until the company went bankrupt. And after that I was the only person who got hired again for being a part-timer reporting directly to the manager in Singapore. So, I worked for them for 10 years until I got to Canada. At the same time for being a part timer, I was also working for another software company doing product management.

Now I have been working for Tim Hortons since the second month after I got here. I was still not very confident about my English. And I know the best way to improve is to communicate with the local people, engage with the things what they are doing, get to know the community. My coworkers think I have improved a lot, but I know I still have a lot to learn. I would like to talk just like them without thinking too much, be fluent and effective.

I am currently living with my husband and son. My husband was born here. In many ways, I depend on him too much, which stops me from exploring by myself. I know I have to make things change, that’s one of the reasons I chose to learn online. I still hope one day I can go back to my old career which is not easy for me not living in a big city. Or maybe I can be a PSW. I am still considering all those possibilities. There are lots of challenges ahead of me, all I have to do is to embrace them all and work them out.