meet the team

Meet The Team: Sally 李楠

meet the team Aug 01, 2021

Hello everyone, my name is Nan Li (李楠), you can call me Sally.

I was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi province and I grew up in Urumqi Xinjiang province. But when I was 7 years old, my family moved to Beijing because Beijing is the capital of China, it has the best educational resource and School/University.

I’ve developed a passion in learning English since early childhood. It is lonely to be Theo only child.I h ad no one to play with when I was a kid. My mother knew about this, so she brought me with her all the time. Hence, bookstores became my childhood playground and books have been my playmates. My Mother would show me those fancy books with cute illustrations on them. Firstly drawn by the pictures, I was curious about these strange symbols called ‘words’. This was my first contact with English. As I was interested in knowing what those symbols mean, my parents taught me a bit. As they felt that I was eager to learn, they got me an English tutor. Thanks to my parents, I have advantages in learning English by starting at a really early age. Sadly, I did not go to the University in Beijing because my parents are very strict with me and made me escape so much. So I went to Wuhan University, the most beautiful University in Asia. Then I came to the University of Chester and finished my Bachelor. Later, I did a Master in University of Cambridge Engineering. When I came to the UK, I felt finally I can run away from my parents and enjoy my life! Honestly I did not like to write essays at all because English is not my mother tongue and I have lots of grammar mistakes, it made my study life so hard (I still have a lot of mistakes now). For countless days and nights, I sat in the library, looked at the books and cried silently. It was my choice; I have to finish it. Luckily I graduated successfully. After graduation I found a job in London. I hate the job so much that they gave me a visa, I can stay in the UK. But every day is like a torment to me, the happiest time is on the way to and from work. Finally, I made a decision: I did not want to waste my time anymore, I want something else, some jobs that made me smile, something made me laugh, something I really like. I quit the job, went to the Royal Holloway University, had another Master’s degree again. Later I built my own business -  Uniwaterpod, a water softener company in the UK and in my spacetime, I spent time in nursery/private school with kids - something makes me laugh, happy and smile. Though I’m not an educator or my background is education, but I have confidence that my experience will allow me to live and learn, from not knowing to knowing. When I was young, I wanted to become a pianist, I started to play piano and violin when I was 4.

Every time when I have a chance, I would go to the music theatre to listen to symphony and orchestra performances. There is not once I would not be moved by the music. I really admire those musicians talent, passion and dedication to music. I wish one day I would be able to become one of them, performing on the stage and touring the world. But when I came to University, I did not have the piano anymore, so I stopped playing. This was a little sad. During my stay in the UK, I ran lots of half and full marathons. When I was younger, I really hated running but now I felt running calms me down and improves my concentration. When I’m running, I think about my past, present and future. Things I regret, things I get excited about and things that make me happy.

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