十四所名校全垒打

2017年，美国加州橙县华裔女学生萧靖彤（Cassandra Hsiao），同时被8所常春藤名校录取。这8所名校包括：哈佛大学、普林斯顿大学、耶鲁大学、达特茅斯大学、布朗大学、哥伦比亚大学、康奈尔大学和宾夕法尼亚大学。

除此之外，斯坦福大学、约翰霍普金斯大学、西北大学等名校也向她伸出了橄榄枝。萧靖彤共申请了14所学校的写作或新闻类学系，截至目前，她所申请的所有学校都向她敞开大门。

如此这般的学霸，在全世界各国的媒体和网络上都引起了不小的轰动。

学霸级网路红人

这样一个“开了挂”的女孩，她的人生又是一个怎样的故事呢？

萧靖彤的父亲来自台湾、母亲来自马来西亚，在她5岁时移民美国。

她在脸书的自我介绍就很牛︰17岁的电影评论家、明星记者、洛杉矶时报高中特约记者、百老汇世界学生博客、诗人和剧作家。

11岁时，萧靖彤就成了Scholastic的儿童记者。之后，她又先后为Crixit.com和Fanlala.com等网站做青年记者，因为常常采访好莱坞红毯渐渐成为青少年网路红人。她目前还是洛杉矶时报高中特约记者、BYOU杂志特约记者和BroadwayWorld.com上的知名博主。

17岁时，作为已有6年资历的好莱坞记者兼网路红人，她还获得了专门表彰影视媒体业杰出女性的格雷斯（Gracie Awards）最佳学生记者奖。

除此之外，萧靖彤还利用业余时间撰写戏剧和诗歌，获得多项全国性的奖励。其中包括普林斯顿大学举办的十分钟短剧剧本创作大奖、"美国全国青年艺术家协会"（Young Arts）诗歌大赛第一名、进入加州青年戏剧创作比赛决赛、获得过全国艺术与写作大奖金奖等。她说，申请大学时，曾经的获奖资历、发表过的文章，都发挥了作用。

文书自曝原来英语讲得不好

在申请大学的作文中，萧靖彤讲述了自己的家庭，一个第一代华人移民家庭，在学习英语的过程中遇到的各种酸甜苦辣。文章描绘了新移民的特性，细节真实、情节感人，打动了八所藤校以及众多其他名校的录取官。

那么，萧靖彤究竟写了些什么呢？

不如我们一起来欣赏一下这篇文章吧~（中英双语）

萧靖彤的申请主文

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.

在我们家，英语不是英语。这不是从语音上来说的，像“Apple”（苹果）要发短音“a”，而是指发音上的。在我们家， “snake”（蛇）是“snack”（小吃）。我们的舌头总是卷不对。我曾经从班里被揪出去让语言专家纠正发音，而我那来自马来西亚的妈妈，到现在还总是把“film”（电影）说成“flim”（五磅纸币），但是我们相互之间却能完全听懂。

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.

在我们家，“cast”（投掷）和“cash”（捐款）没有区别。这就是为什么在离开教堂的时候，人们拿我寻开心地说“cashing out demons”（兑现魔鬼，本意应是casting out demons，即驱赶魔鬼）。我没有意识到这两个英文单词之间有明显的差异，直到老师纠正了我的“hammock”（吊床）、“ladle”（钢包）和“siphon”（虹吸管）的发音，才恍然大悟。同学们也都笑我，因为我把“accept”（接受）读成了“except”（除了），将“success”（成功）读成了“sussess”。尽管我参加了创意写作班，但是在需要的时候往往词不达意。

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?

突然之间，我明白了，只懂得“flower”（花朵）和“flour”（面粉）发音相同是不够的。我开始逐渐摆脱那些伴随着我长大的、教会了我一切的英语。既然其他人的父母都能说一口博士、大学老师般的流利英语，为什么我的父母不能呢？

My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.

我的母亲摊开她那双饱经日晒的双手说：“我就是从这儿来的”，接着用自学的英语讲了一个故事。

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.”

当我母亲还在马来西亚的时候，她从一个小村庄搬到了城里。在读初中的她不得不学一门全新的语言：英语。当时很多人以羞辱别人为乐，她只能无力地忍受着老师当着全班的面，用残酷的语言批评她的作文。当她开始哭泣时，班长站起来说“够了”。

“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.”

妈妈含着泪说：“要像那个班长一样”。班长处处护着她，还耐心纠正她的语言。“她为弱者挺身而出，用自己的语言反抗。”

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.

我们母女俩都哭了。母亲要我教她正确的英语，这样塔吉特商场（Target）的白人老太太们就不会嘲笑她的发音了。这并不容易。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，她说得不好，我也装作不知道，以免挫败她的自尊心，但这样反而可能让她受到了更多伤害。

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.

随着母亲的英语词汇开始增长，我也努力纠正自己的英语。通过在学校3000人面前朗诵诗歌，采访各界人士，为舞台写故事，我反对无知，并支持为无家可归者、难民和被忽视的群体发声。在纽约地铁站里，我看到有些人嘲笑街头的一位亚裔老艺人，我也站出来和他们对抗。我的母亲关注那些贫穷的、英语非母语的孩子，他们有许多故事，但不知道从何说起。我就教他们用针头和线纱串连字符，编织起一幅挂毯。

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.

在我们家，相互间说话的方式也很温馨。在我们家，我们的语言并不“烂”，而是饱含感情。我们用文字建造了一座房子。食橱里有友善的"snake"（蛇）和水槽里有“snack”（小吃）。这房子有点歪，里头有一点凌乱，但我们就在这里打造了自己的家。