僅憑一紙文書，17歲女生被哈佛耶魯全錄取（附作文原文）

17歲華裔女孩蕭靖彤（Cassandra Hsiao）近日收到了美國全部常春藤盟的錄取通知書，成爲華人世界的熱門話題。

這8所學校分別是享譽世界的哈佛大學、耶魯大學、普林斯頓大學、布朗大學、哥倫比亞大學、康奈爾大學、賓夕法尼亞大學及達特茅斯學院

*科普時間：常春藤盟校

常春藤盟校(Ivy League)是由美國東北部地區的七所大學和一所學院組成的一個高校聯盟（就是上面全部錄取了蕭靖彤的那8所）。這些大學都是美國首屈一指的大學，歷史悠久，治學嚴謹，許多著名的科學家、政界要人、商賈鉅子都畢業於此。在美國，常青藤學院被作爲頂尖名校的代名詞。

蕭靖彤5歲時隨家人移民到美國，她的父親是中國臺灣人，母親是馬來西亞人。

蕭靖彤在成長過程中也經歷了很多在美國的移民家庭所面臨的困境和美好，以及在試圖融入美國新環境中經受的挑戰。

英文不是他們家的第一語言，剛到美國時，他們的英語發音不準。

“當自己在家外說一些在家裏使用的詞彙時，外面的人會嘲笑我，但這些東西對於我來說是十分正常的。”

不過，“爛英語”絲毫沒有影響她和家人之間的溝通。“在我家裏，我們說話的方式很美。在我家裏，我們的話並不‘爛’，而是充滿了感情。我們用詞語建了一座房子……這房子有點歪，有點雜亂無章，但這是我們的家。”

語法規則和語調的細微差別讓她意識到自己的經歷對移民家庭而言是非常獨特的。

於是，她把這些經歷寫進了大學的申請作文裏。而這篇真情實感的作文，吸引了全美十多所名校的注意。哈佛、普林斯頓、耶魯等全部八所“常春藤盟校”都給她寄來了錄取通知書，斯坦福、紐約大學等也錄取了她。

以下爲蕭靖彤的作文原文：

In our house, English is not English. Not in the phonetic sense, like short a is for apple, but rather in the pronunciation – in our house, snake is snack. Words do not roll off our tongues correctly – yet I, who was pulled out of class to meet with language specialists, and my mother from Malaysia, who pronounces film as flim, understand each other perfectly.
在我們家，英語不是英語，不是在語音意義上，而是發音上的。在我們家，“snake”（蛇）會被讀成“snack”（小吃）。我們的舌頭總是卷不對。我常被語言專家糾正發音，我媽媽來自馬來西亞，她說“film”的時候總是發成“flim”，但是我們完全能聽得懂對方。

In our house, there is no difference between cast and cash, which was why at a church retreat, people made fun of me for “cashing out demons.” I did not realize the glaring difference between the two Englishes until my teacher corrected my pronunciations of hammock, ladle, and siphon. Classmates laughed because I pronounce accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative Writing conservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most.
在我們家，“cast”（拋擲）和“cash”（兌現、現金）沒有分別，這就是爲什麼在離開教堂時，人們常常取笑我“cashing out demons”（兌現惡魔，本應爲丟棄惡魔）。我沒有意識到兩個英語單詞之間的差異，直到老師糾正了我的hammock、ladle、和siphon的發音。同學們笑我，因爲我將accept（接受）讀成except（除外），將success讀成sussess。儘管我已參加了創意寫作，但常常詞不達意。

Suddenly, understanding flower is flour wasn’t enough. I rejected the English that had never seemed broken before, a language that had raised me and taught me everything I knew. Everybody else’s parents spoke with accents smarting of Ph.D.s and university teaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?
突然之間，我開始明白，如果只是知道花朵和麪粉的發音相同是不夠的。我開始逐漸擺脫了那些伴隨着我長大的、曾經自以爲還不錯的英語，既然其他人的父母，都能說一口流利的英語，爲什麼我的父母不能呢？

My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.
我的母親攤開她那雙曬黑的手說：“我就是從這兒來的”，她用自己以前學過的英語講了一個故事。

When my mother moved from her village to a town in Malaysia, she had to learn a brand new language in middle school: English. In a time when humiliation was encouraged, my mother was defenseless against the cruel words spewing from the teacher, who criticized her paper in front of the class. When she began to cry, the class president stood up and said, “That’s enough.”
當我母親從她居住的馬來西亞村莊搬到一個城鎮時，她不得不在初中開始學習一門全新的語言：英語。當時很多人以羞辱別人爲樂，當她的老師當着全班的面，用尖酸的語言嘲笑她的作文時，她無力反抗。當她開始哭泣時，班長站起來說“夠了”。

“Be like that class president,” my mother said with tears in her eyes. The class president took her under her wing and patiently mended my mother’s strands of language. “She stood up for the weak and used her words to fight back.”
“要像那個班長一樣”，媽媽含着淚說，要爲弱者說話。要知道那個班長不僅保護了她，還耐心地幫她提高語言。

We were both crying now. My mother asked me to teach her proper English so old white ladies at Target wouldn’t laugh at her pronunciation. It has not been easy. There is a measure of guilt when I sew her letters together. Long vowels, double consonants — I am still learning myself. Sometimes I let the brokenness slide to spare her pride but perhaps I have hurt her more to spare mine.
母親要我教她正確的英語，這樣Target 商場的白人老太太就不會嘲笑她的發音了。當我把她的話拼綴在一起時，會有一種歉疚感。長元音、雙輔音，其實這些我自己也仍在學習。有時候我避免讓一些隻言片語傷害她的自尊心，但我可能已經在不經意時，傷害了她很多。

As my mother’s vocabulary began to grow, I mended my own English. Through performing poetry in front of 3000 at my school’s Season Finale event, interviewing people from all walks of life, and writing stories for the stage, I stand against ignorance and become a voice for the homeless, the refugees, the ignored. With my words I fight against jeers pelted at an old Asian street performer on a New York subway. My mother’s eyes are reflected in underprivileged ESL children who have so many stories to tell but do not know how. I fill them with words as they take needle and thread to make a tapestry.
隨着媽媽英語詞彙不斷增加，我的英語也在不斷進步。我可以在學校3000多人面前朗誦詩歌，還採訪了各界人士、寫舞臺劇，站出來爲無家可歸者、難民和弱勢羣體發聲。在紐約地鐵，有些人會嘲笑街頭藝人，我也用站出來和他們對抗。我還會教那些貧窮的、英語非母語的孩子學英語，看到他們有很多故事要講、但又不知道如何表達的樣子時，我彷彿看到了我媽媽的過去。

In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other. In our house, language is not broken but rather bursting with emotion. We have built a house out of words. There are friendly snakes in the cupboard and snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is a little messy. But this is where we have made our home.
在我們家裏，家人之間說話的方式也很溫馨。在我家裏，我們說話的方式很美。在我家裏，我們的話並不‘爛’，而是充滿了感情。我們用詞語建了一座房子……這房子有點歪，有點雜亂無章，但這是我們的家。