17岁的华裔女孩被8所藤校录取的成功秘诀（附原文）-云杉英才张宏民简历

萧靖彤（Cassandra Hsiao），美国华裔女孩。她的父亲是中国台湾人，母亲是马来西亚华人，五岁时移居美国。她在Essay中回顾了她和母亲在美国学习英语的艰难经历。凭这借一篇充满真情实感的作文，17岁美国华裔女孩萧靖彤被全部八所常春藤盟校录取，成为华人世界的热门话题。
原文+翻译
In our house, English is notEnglish. Not in the phonetic sense, like short a is for apple,鞠敬伟 but rather inthe pronunciation – in our house, snake is snack. Words do not roll off ourtongues correctly – yet I, who was pulled out of class to meet with languagespecialists, and my mother from Malaysia, who pronounces film as flim,understand each other perfectly.
在我们家，英语不是英语，不是在语音意义上，而是发音上的。在我们家，“snake”（蛇）会被读成“snack”（小吃）。我们的舌头总是卷不对。我常被语言专家纠正发音，我妈妈来自马来西亚，她说“film”的时候总是发成“flim”，但是我们完全能听得懂对方。
In our house, there is nodifference between cast and cash, which was why at a church retreat, peoplemade fun of me for “cashing out demons.” I did not realize the glaringdifference between the two Englishes until my teacher corrected mypronunciations of hammock, ladle, and siphon. Classmates laughed because Ipronounce accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative Writingconservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most.
在我们家，“cast”（抛掷）和“cash”（兑现、现金）没有分别，这就是为什么在离开教堂时，人们常常取笑我“cashingout demons”（兑现恶魔，本应为丢弃恶魔）。我没有意识到两个英语单词之间的差异，直到老师纠正了我的hammock、ladle、和siphon的发音。同学们笑我，因为我将accept（接受）读成except（除外），将success读成sussess。尽管我已参加了创意写作，但常常词不达意。
Suddenly, understanding floweris flour wasn’t enough. I rejected the English that had never seemed brokenbefore柘荣天气预报 , 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 universityteaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?
突然之间，我开始明白，如果只是知道花朵和面粉的发音相同是不够的。我开始逐渐摆脱了那些伴随着我长大的、曾经自以为还不错的英语，既然其他人的父母，都能说一口流利的英语，为什么我的父母不能呢？
My mother spread her sunbakedhands and said艾泽拉斯之怒 , “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the Englishshe had taught herself.
我的母亲摊开她那双晒黑的手说：“我就是从这儿来的”，她用自己以前学过的英语讲了一个故事。
When my mother moved from hervillage to a town in Malaysia, she had to learn a brand new language in middleschool: English. In a time when humiliation was encouraged, my mother wasdefenseless against the cruel words spewing from the teacher, who criticized herpaper in front of the class. When she began to cry, the class president stoodup and said, “That’s enough.”
当我母亲从她居住的马来西亚村庄搬到一个城镇时，她不得不在初中开始学习一门全新的语言：英语舞出我天地。当时很多人以羞辱别人为乐，当她的老师当着全班的面，用尖酸的语言嘲笑她的作文时，她无力反抗。当她开始哭泣时，班长站起来说“够了”。
“Be like that class president张江家园网,”my mother said with tears in her eyes. The class president took her under herwing and patiently mended my mother’s strands of language. “She stood up forthe weak and used her words to fight back.”
“要像那个班长一样”，妈妈含着泪说，要为弱者说话。要知道那个班长不仅保护了她，还耐心地帮她提高语言。
We were both crying now. Mymother asked me to teach her proper English so old white ladies at Targetwouldn’t laugh at her pronunciation. It has not been easy. There is a measureof guilt when I sew her letters together. Long vowels, double consonants — I amstill learning myself. Sometimes I let the brokenness slide to spare her pridebut perhaps I have hurt her more to spare mine.
母亲要我教她正确的英语，这样Target 商场的白人老太太就不会嘲笑她的发音了。当我把她的话拼缀在一起时，会有一种歉疚感。长元音、双辅音，其实这些我自己也仍在学习。有时候我避免让一些只言片语伤害她的自尊心，但我可能已经在不经意时，伤害了她很多。
As my mother’s vocabulary beganto grow, I mended my own English. Through performing poetry in front of 3000 atmy 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 voicefor the homeless, the refugees, the ignored. With my words I fight againstjeers pelted at an old Asian street performer on a New York subway. My mother’seyes are reflected in underprivileged ESL children who have so many stories totell but do not know how. I fill them with words as they take needle and threadto make a tapestry.
随着妈妈英语词汇不断增加，我的英语也在不断进步极品色妃 。我可以在学校3000多人面前朗诵诗歌，还采访了各界人士、写舞台剧，站出来为无家可归者、难民和弱势群体发声。在纽约地铁，有些人会嘲笑街头艺人，我也用站出来和他们对抗。我还会教那些贫穷的、英语非母语的孩子学英语，看到他们有很多故事要讲、但又不知道如何表达的样子时，我仿佛看到了我妈妈的过去。
In our house, there is beauty inthe way we speak to each other. In our house仁安悦榕庄, language is not broken but ratherbursting with emotion. We have built a house out of words. There are friendlysnakes in the cupboard and snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is alittle messy. But this is where we have made our home.
在我们家里袁东操博客 ，家人之间说话的方式也很温馨。在我家里，我们说话的方式很美。在我家里，我们的话并不‘烂’，而是充满了感情。我们用词语建了一座房子……这房子有点歪，有点杂乱无章，但这是我们的家。

Essay 成功秘诀
萧靖彤Essay的真实笔触让人印象深刻、深受鼓舞，她把自己家庭第一代移民的背景和克服困难、改变生活的个人动机联系起来雨后的咖啡。不仅说明她做了什么活动，也解释了她为什么而做。
「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.」
她以文章开头同样的方式结束了自己Essay，首尾呼应，讲述了她的家庭是怎样沟通的。最后一段话充满了希望，生活是不完美的，但是自己所做的，决定了不同的人生。许多人看了这篇文章，批评说没有特别过人之处，没有展示出学生克服挑战的明显作为，而且这些挑战既不艰苦卓绝，也不太感人。但反过来看，这篇文章表达了学生真诚的声音。以一名高中女孩的自己熟悉的词汇展示出来，蕴含的情感和思想都很真实和鼓舞人。
大学申请essay最重要的是写作内容。大学申请essay确实是大学申请的一个重要部分，而最重要的是写作内容本身。选择合适的写作内容很有挑战性，因为这个年龄的学生所做的事情有限，经历也有限，并不都能呈现在文章中。
这就是为什么找到一个好的写作辅导老师尤为重要，有经验，有能力，不但能帮助学生构建一篇好的申请文书，而且能结合学生的特点发掘正确的故事，从而将学生塑造成大学引以为傲，愿意招收的人。没有轻易得来的好文章，所有的出版文章都经过内容编辑，并在出版前反复修改。大学申请作文也不例外。
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