Before going to school each day, he would stand in his front yard and recite English. In the evenings, when his mother was in the kitchen cooking dinner, he would be hunched over the dinner table solving math problems, making up his own problems, and working on compositions.
每天出門上學前，他站在前院裡朗誦英文；傍晚，母親在廚房炒菜，他在一旁趴在餐桌上演算數學習題，並且自訂題目、練習作文。