Watching 'Jeopardy!' helped this woman learn English and now she's a contestant

AfterKristyna Ng immigrated to Canada as an eight-year-old from China, her drive to learn English had her poringover dictionaries and encyclopedias.

She also watchedhours of Jeopardy!

Now, three decades later, she's come face to face with her unwitting tutor.Not Merriam-Webster, butAlex Trebek.

"It really is coming full circle," Ng says."To be able to compete and represent Calgary, Alberta and Canada asa citizen and to be on the same stage as Alex Trebek, a great Canadianthat is just something I could never imagine."

Ng will join millions of viewers this week in watching her appearance on the famous game show. She can't say how she did.The show's producers are notoriously careful about leaks.

But what ajourney.

Ng grew upin Victoria, B.C.,after arriving from southern China in the late 1980s.

Sheknew little more than her A, B, Cs at first, butwith the help of her elementary school teacher, Ngdevoted herself to learning a new language and did so quickly.Television became a tool that helpedsharpenher skills.

"Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! werethe soundtrack of my life," Ng says. "There was no YouTube. We had 13 channels. So every night I would practice. It's almost like hangman for Wheel of Fortune.And then Jeopardy!, in terms of understanding what the clue was asking, and my ability to interpret and understandand ...answer it correctly."

The tough questions didn't put her off.

"They were really hard at the beginning probably getting zerocorrect," she said. "As I watched it more and more every day, it became easier."

She later earned a master's degree in public administration at the University of Victoria. Today, Ng, who speaks three languages,is a corporate strategist in Calgary.

She met her husband, Ritchie,on a cruise in 2005 and it was he who first encouraged herto participate oncruise trivia teams.

Cruise trivia can beserious businessbut the couple have embraced the competition. They log their misses and study to shore up potential gaps. Their teams rarely lose.

It was on another cruise three years ago that Ng'sbid to appear on Jeopardy! began to percolate. A fellow trivia playerhad taken theshow's online test and got to the audition phase.

"He says you guys should tryyou're very good," Ngsays.

Their interest was piqued. Last April, her husbandsigned them both up for the online test.

"He actually had more confidence in me than I did," she says.

Ng's results earned her an invitation to a regionalaudition in Seattle lastJuly where she was surrounded bysoftware andcomputer engineers who worked for companies likeAmazon andMicrosoft.

Once home, Ng wasn't sure what to expect. If you've done well enough, she says, you go into a contestant pool for 18 months. Only those chosen will ever get a call.

Then, in late October, a voice mail arrived: "This is Jeopardy!'scontestant coordinator ..."

"I couldn't believe it," she says. "The stars aligned."

Ng and her husband flew to Los Angeles a couple of days before the show was filmed in December andsequestered themselves intheir room to study. Finally,the big day arrived.

As she satin a freezing studio and awaited forher turn, she tried to soakthings in.

"Sitting on the stage and watching other contestants play really was a surreal experience the lights, the sounds, seeing the clue board," she says.

Meeting Trebek, though, was inspiring.

The 79-year-old CanadianTV personality has hostedJeopardy! since 1984. Last year, he went public with his fight againstStage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Ng found Trebek to be genuine and humble, including his interactions with the fans who filled the studio. Peopleearnestly wanted to know how he was feeling. Hejoked and said he was feeling well enough to climb up on his roof and clean the gutters.

"I'm very blessed and grateful to get this opportunity to be on the same stage," she says."Each contestant got to take a picture withAlex Trebek ...and I will cherish that memory for many years to come."

Indeed, she said just getting therewas a "bucket list" experience.

"I had one goal: get on the show, click in once, get it right and get into Final Jeopardy and everything else is a bonus," she says. "Stay tuned."