At the University of Georgia, my course assignments consisted in much reading. I spent many, many hours at the library surrounded by the books and two or three dictionaries and encyclopedias in English and Spanish and also in French. I would read until I was done. It was a very tedious way to read and do my assignments, but not only was I learning new vocabulary in English, but I also was getting better and better in my report writings.

This endless method of reading, find the meaning of a word or phrase in English, and then checking the meaning in Spanish and French, when I need it, proved quite profitable. However, I was not aware that this method was only improving my “academic English” and doing nothing for my social life.

After all this “studying” process, I was late coming to the dorm so many times that I accumulated many demerits. (Demerits were a kind of punishment for not respecting the dorm rules). The house mother then gave me a weekend assignment to work off my demerits. I was to answer the reception phone at the dorm. I learned to say with a very fine Georgia accent, “South Ma-a-ahrs, good afternoo-o-on”. But nobody could understand anything I said after that. Neither did I understand what they said. So I also learned to say, “Please ya’ll call back on Monday, you hear.”

Very soon I was relieved of that assignment, and I was not given more demerits no matter how late I came from the library, or the apartment of the Pakistani, my boy friend.