I moved to USA when I was at late 16. The only English I knew was “hello” and “how are you?”

In September 1986 I attended Grade 12 in George Washington High School at Charleston, West Virginia. Not knowing enough English to attend high school was a hard challenge.

For every single subject that I needed to complete to be able to graduate, I had to work triple hard. I had to find every single word in the dictionary to understand every subject.

But it was a great achievement for me and I was very excited and positive about it. Months passed and I was getting better in English and was speaking slowly but more smooth. My English teacher was very kind and patient with me, she talked slowly and clearly to make sure I understood. My Algebra teacher loved me because I always handed in neat homework and got…