I was born in Hanoi during Vietnam's war with the United States. In 1979, my  family moved to Ho Chi Minh City, where I graduated from Hoang Hoa Tham Highschool. I then attended the University of Ho Chi Minh City, majoring in English linguistics and literature. Upon completion of the prestigious Honors Program, for which I was one of only two English majors of the 1997 graduating class to be chosen, I was offered a lecturing position in the English Department. My primary teaching areas at the time included grammar, translation, essay-writing,  phonetics, phonology, and cultural studies. In 1992, I received an Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) scholarship to undertake post-graduate studies in Australia, culminating in an M.A. degree in Humanities (Education) in 1995. Returning to Vietnam that same year, I taught British and American literatures to senior students at my home university, now called the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. In 1999, I won a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) scholarship to study at McRae Institute of International Management in Vancouver, Canada. In 2001, I started a PhD program in English at the University of British Columbia. The scope of my doctoral research ranged from 19th-century to 20th-century American literature. In 2006, I was awarded a PhD in 20th-century American literature. I have also taught contemporary British, Canadian, and American literatures at the University of British Columbia since 2001.