She is the older of four children and the first member of her family to attend high school. Her parents, after dropping out to support their families, never received an education beyond primary school—her mother works in a garment factory and her father drives a taxi for a living.

With the big hopes of one day becoming a doctor, Arunny realised early on that learning English was an important step in her journey towards this goal. But despite trying hard to learn, the accustomed methods did not quite work for her. Her teacher, trained in Khmer, had not taught in English before. And with Arunny being a visual learner, she was not being supported through the standard reading of her textbook.

“When I study with the teacher, I have to follow the teacher’s process of teaching. Sometimes it is too fast, and sometimes it is too slow,” Arunny said. On top of this, she had no one to practice speaking with, as none of her friends or family speak English well enough—Khmer is the language of choice for the community.