美國華裔女孩憑藉一篇感人作文 獲八所常春藤盟校錄取
"In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other ... language is not broken but rather, bursting with emotion. It is a little messy. But this is where we have made our home."
“在我們家裏，我們彼此交談的方式中充斥着一種美。我們的語言並不破碎，而是充滿了情感。有些雜亂無章，但這是我們的家。”Those were words from 17-year-old Cassandra Hsiao, whose moving college essay caught the attention of multiple US universities and the world.
這些是17歲女孩蕭靖彤寫下的文字，她的大學申請文章打動了美國多所大學和整個世界。The Malaysian-born teenager, who now lives in California, had written about her humbling experiences learning English while growing up in an immigrant household.
蕭靖彤出生於馬來西亞，目前住在加州，她寫下了自己在一個移民家庭長大過程中學習英語的普通經歷。
She has received offer letters from all eight Ivy League colleges, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale. She hasn't made her decision yet but said that she would be visiting colleges in the coming weeks.
她已經收到了包括哈佛、普林斯頓和耶魯在內的所有八所常春藤名校的錄取通知書。她尚未作出決定要去哪一所大學，但是稱自己接下來幾周將造訪這些大學。"Identity and the desire to belong are two of the most relatable struggles that people face. I wanted to share a slice of our home life, my relationship with my mother and both of our stories," she told BBC News.
她向BBC透露：“身份認同和對歸屬感的渴望是人們面臨的兩個最大的難題。我想把我們的家庭生活、我和母親的關係、以及我們兩人的故事分享給別人知道。”
Born to a Taiwanese father and a Malaysian mother, Cassandra grew up in the southern state of Johor. The family moved to the United States when she was five.
蕭靖彤的父親是臺灣人，母親是馬來西亞人，小時候她住在馬來西亞南部的柔佛州。5歲時她們全家搬往了美國。"I miss Malaysia and think about my home country quite often. Growing up, I loved flying kites, going to markets and setting off firecrackers. I spent my childhood babbling in a mixture of Chinese, Malay and English," she recalled fondly.
她深情地回憶道：“我很想念馬來西亞，也時常想起我的祖國。小時候我很喜歡放風箏、去市集玩耍、放鞭炮。我的童年是在漢語、馬來語和英語混雜使用的背景下度過的。”But tackling the language barrier in a foreign country proved difficult. In her essay, Cassandra recounted a "humiliating" experience which happened to her mother in school. She was criticised and laughed at by her peers after the teacher criticised an English paper she wrote.
但是在國外解決語言障礙很困難。蕭靖彤在她的文章中回憶了她母親在學校遭遇的一次“恥辱”的經歷。當時老師批評了蕭靖彤母親的一篇英語文章，事後她的同學們都來批評嘲笑她。A kind classmate came to her defence. "She 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," Ms Hsiao wrote.
一位好心的同學幫她母親說話。蕭靖彤寫道：“她把我母親護在身後，耐心地幫她修改語言。她爲弱者挺身而出，用自己的語言進行回擊。”But the challenges did not end there. "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."
但是這件事並沒有就此結束。“母親叫我教她正確的英語，如此一來那些傲慢自大的老師就不會再嘲笑她的發音。但是這並不是一件容易的事。”"I believe this essay really embodies values I hold close to my heart: standing up for those without a voice, even when you think you haven't quite found your own yet," said Cassandra.
蕭靖彤說道：“我認爲這篇文章真正體現了我心中的價值觀念：爲那些不能發聲的人挺身而出，即使你自己也力有不逮。”
