Prologue

My family immigrated to America when I was fifteen. The first year of school was a nightmare for me. I was incompetent in English, especially in conversations and casual chats. I didn't watch TV as I couldn't comprehend many of the dialogs. Most of the time I had no clue what my schoolmates were talking about. I was sent down to a lower grade. I was constantly being made fun of by the kids younger than me. I had to take summer school and additional English classes to catch up. The only subject I outperformed most of my classmates was math. I was very good in math, except when I had to answer questions orally.

The second year was a lot better. My English had improved. I got a few friends willing to talk to me and my spoken English got better day by day. I started going to movies with my friends and watched TV at home. Once we starting having computer classes I became a hero. Nobody, including the teacher, knew half as much as I did. I had been a computer maniac since I was eight years old. My dad was a computer programmer and I read almost all his computer books before he finished them. Even in my home country I used to be a walking dictionary in computer subjects for everyone around me. In fact, during my first year of school in America, spending time on my computer was the only thing I did after beside school and homework.

I became more involved with my schoolmates during my senior year in high school. I had more and more friends. Despite my accent, I could speak decent English and my written English had improved. I even got a scholarship for my college. My dad worked as a programmer in his new country and wanted me to get into a reputable college. He was willing, and could afford, to pay for the expenses. Moreover, my only sibling - my brother - was four years younger, so by the time he went to college I should have finished mine. Without hesitation I picked computer science as my major. I had nothing better to do during the long summer vacation so I polished my programming technique. I was already a certified JAVA programmer before college started.

It was impossible to travel from home to college on a daily basis, so I moved into the residence. My roommate Pete was a freshman majoring in business. He was tall and athletic. Standing right at six feet, he was four inches taller than me. He had the same black hair and brown eyes I had, but he was a thousand times better looking than me. He was also a very outgoing and friendly person. I was glad I had this kind of roommate for my first year living away from my family. He also liked to talk about his romantic adventures. I had problem trying to remember the many names of his former girlfriends. Even before school commenced, I started hearing him talking on the phone with girls he just met on campus. He was astonished when he knew I never had a girlfriend, let alone a real date. I didn't go to my prom as I didn't have a date.

Even though I was doing much better in English, I still had to take remedial English. I was, however, exempted from two beginner level computer programming courses when I showed the department head my certificates. He was so impressed he even talked about hiring me as one of his teaching assistants, but since I was only a freshman, he didn't want to take the risk. He nevertheless recommended me to the tutoring center. My first paid job in this country began on campus as soon as school started.

Tutoring novice students on the use of computers and programming was worse than my experience in learning English. Most of them had no clue what I was talking about, and I couldn't understand why they were unable to comprehend the concepts. After the first tutoring session was over, I went to the library and read through the introductory books that I had never touched before. A few sessions later, I swapped some students with another tutor. He had my beginner students and I had some of his more advanced clients.