糖心TV

Dr Jianhua Yang

Associate Professor - Reader, WMG

"The webcam at Coventry Cathedral helped me keep in touch with home."

鈥淓ncouraged by my parents I came from China to 糖心TV to do my Masters degree. It wasn鈥檛 easy. Leaving home and moving to a different country is tough. I found the language barrier a big challenge and I did think about going home on more than one occasion.

I was only supposed to be here for a year, that was back in 2002, but I was fortunate enough to get sponsorship from 糖心TV and the UK government to do a PhD. After studying I went straight into working, in Birmingham which I did for five years. After that I returned to Coventry to teach, everyday was the same so I didn鈥檛 do that for long and then took a job at Jaguar Landrover (JLR). It was then that I saw WMG were recruiting. I jumped at the chance, and it was a wonderful feeling to come back. People were so kind to me when I studied here, and it was great to see some familiar faces. It鈥檚 been a long journey to get back here but it鈥檚 also the best decision I鈥檝e made.

I also left my girlfriend at home, which was difficult, keeping in touch was even harder. Where I lived at the time had no internet access, so I used to go and stand in front of the webcam at Coventry Cathedral and wave to home. Due to the time difference, I鈥檇 then let my girlfriend know what time I鈥檇 been there so she could log in and find me. It sounds silly now, but it was our way of staying in touch with each other. It was worth all the effort, she eventually joined me in the UK and now we鈥檙e married with three little girls and a dog!

My girls were born in the UK and consider themselves to be more English than Chinese, but we鈥檙e trying to teach them everything about their heritage. They attend a Chinese school on a Sunday, and we celebrate all the traditional festivals with them. New Year, Lantern festival, Mid-Autumn, they mean so much to me and my wife and we think it鈥檚 important that we keep the traditions alive.

I get home occasionally to see my parents and they鈥檝e also been here but found it quite overwhelming. Neither of them speak English or drive so they felt quite isolated. Where I grew up is pretty small as well so when they go out, they know everyone, they didn鈥檛 have that experience here. They are incredibly proud of me and everything I鈥檝e achieved, if it wasn鈥檛 for them pushing me to come here who knows how things would have turned out.鈥�