Orna Taub was born, along with her twin sister, Hedi, in Haifa, Israel in 1957 to a happy and loving family. As a lifelong lover of knowledge she has studied many different subjects in her life. After serving in the Israeli Army she studied pure mathematics at the Technion, a technical university in Haifa, and received a Master’s degree. After graduation she spent four years studying Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and Chinese herbs. To her luck one of her instructors in the Chinese medicine school was a native Chinese doctor who only spoke Chinese. In order to communicate with him directly Orna tried to speak Chinese whenever possible. She gradually became his good friend and helped in managing his everyday life in Israel. In return he helped her with her Chinese language studies. Eventually she became his translator in classes and when he gave private treatments. In the following years Orna continued to study by herself and attended first year lessons with a Chinese teacher from Tianjin. After a few years she made her first trip to China and stayed in Chengdu (Sichuan province) for three months attending the Normal University and taking classes in Chinese language with other foreign students. During that time she spoke only Chinese and made great progress in her language studies.