"It has been 24 years since I first taught in China in 1990. I have been living in China for more than 18 years." When Diana first arrived in China, she worked as an English teacher in Renmin University of China (RUC) as a member of a teacher exchange program. Since then, she has devoted herself to working as a foreign teacher in China.

Born in Minnesota in the U.S., Diana took a degree in English. Before she arrived in China, she had taken only eight simple Chinese lessons, getting to know a few simple Chinese words like "Ninhao" (Hello), "Zaijian" (See you) and "Xiexie"(Thank you).

Diana experienced some difficulties due to her poor Chinese when she first arrived. It took her two years to learn to pronounce "Cesuo" (Toilet) correctly. "In the beginning, I always pronounced it as 'Zesuo' or 'Sesuo'. So most of Chinese could not understand what I meant. Occasionally it made it very difficult for me to answer the call of nature."

The Chinese were extreme curious about foreigners in 1990s – at the time there were very few foreigners in China. They were fascinated by this tall girl with blond hair and a Roman nose.

One day, two people following Diana were whispering together and wonering how tall she was. Could she be as much as 2 meters tall? The were astonished when Diana spoke up in Chinese: "I am 1.86m." It was a rarity to meet a foreigner who could speak any Chinese at all at that time.

While Diana spent her time teaching English at university, she did not spare herself in an effort to learn Chinese. While still a teacher at RUC, she studied Chinese for three hours a week. She then went on a four-hour daily Chinese class at a training centre in Beihang University. Diana had difficulty in reading Chinese characters. "Could you please write the character one stroke at a time?" she would ask if she could not read a word.

Diana taught at Guizhou Institute of Technology in southwest China's Guizhou province in 2000. In order to improve her Chinese, she took a one-to-one Chinese course. When she returned to Beijing in 2002, she got a job with a charity. After that she carried on her teaching career at Beihang University in 2005. Six years later in 2011, she worked as a training teacher at the College of Continuing Education of Beijing Language and Culture University.

Diana can now communicate very fluently in Chinese. "Tones, polyphones and phonograms are very difficult for foreigners," she says. When communicating with Chinese, Diana can swap freely between Chinese and English. She takes every opportunity to extend her vocabulary.

"Chinese is a difficult language and it takes a lifetime to learn it," says Diana.

Diana is very optimistic and outgoing. She is keen to make jokes about the differences between the two languages. "Manzou" means walk slowly when translated literally into English, but it is a common expression in Chinese which means take care. When her friends say it, Diana always starts to walk at a slow pace, making her friends laugh.

Diana never imagined she would stay in China for 20 years. "When I came here, I fell in love with China quickly," she says.

The article is edited and translated from《黛娜的外教生涯》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author: Zhang Yonglu