I have a student who I suppose by his fellow school persons, would be called a "nerd". Compulsory piano lessons, zitty, skinny and thick glasses. In the first class I thought he would be a pain in the arse as he answered almost every question with "depends", I couldn't draw him out, he seemed uninterested in learning English, especially as it was an obligatory class - his folks make him, like the piano. In an initial interview his dad was present and answered all the questions for him, when I directed a question at the boy, the dad jumped in with an answer.
In the class without the parental influence, however, get him talking about history and the kid's away! He's one smart dude and now one of my fave students. He told me today that the battle of Agincourt wasn't won by the Welsh Longbow men at all, well it was but they apparently waded in with farm implements when the French were all a-Higgledy Piggledy in the mud and advancing into a bottleneck. He reads Bernard Cornwell and knows the entire history of Star Wars from BEFORE Episode I to AFTER Episode VI. I give him "research" homework, a word, name of something or person and he finds out as much as possible through internet, reads up then tells me all about it next class. Last week it was Edward I, this week it's Owain Glyndwr. Nerds are great dudes!