I am Vietnamese-Australian, yet I speak English better than any other language.  All my reading, writing and thinking is limited to combinations and permutations of the twenty-six lettered Roman alphabet. So do I still have use for another language?
As a little girl, I saw language as a burden.
When I was ten years old, learning Vietnamese was a great big bore. A waste of three hours every Saturday morning at Richmond West Primary School. I didn’t know why I had to learn to speak differently from other people. How did learning …

I had always wanted to become a surgeon. To save lives through action, backed by knowledge. To cut away death with a blade, so precise, that it would not know I was coming. I believed in the weapons forged from surgical grade steel.
I was not surprised, then, when I received a scholarship for my surgical elective at Saigon Hospital. I was a sterling achiever. School Captain. University President. An avid collector of titles and awards, the way others were drawn to figurines and comics.
My secret was sleeplessness. I was a …