More than 11 years ago, the native of Italy entered Lake Forest Country Day School for the first time. Alessandro "Ale" Raganelli was six years old, a boy who knew just a few more words in the English language than most newborns in the United States know.

The first-grader from Rome uttered two words quite often back then. "Little" was one. "Bit" was the other.

"People would ask me all the time, 'Do you speak English?' " recalls Raganelli, now a junior swimmer at Lake Forest High School. "I'd tell them, 'Little bit.' "

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Source: http://dailynorthshore.com/