收到美國八所藤校錄取的亞裔女孩,她的申請文書有何不同?

美國 英語 大學 移民 續航美國留學 2017-04-10

在3月30號美國常春藤大學放榜日的這一天,一個名叫Cassandra Hsiao的姑娘選擇了14所美國大學申請新聞學系並收到了全部的錄取通知書,其中八所常春藤盟校都向她拋來了橄欖枝。是的你沒看錯,除了哈佛、耶魯、普林斯頓、哥倫比亞、康奈爾、賓大、布朗、達特茅斯以外,她還收到了約翰霍普金斯、南加大、西北大學等等名校的錄取。

Cassandra並不是土生土長的美國人,她的爸爸是臺灣人,媽媽是馬來西亞人。作為一名五歲搬到美國的第一代移民,Cassandra Hsiao的臉書個人介紹寫道“17歲的電影評論家、明星記者、洛杉磯(專題)時報高中特約記者、百老匯世界學生博客、詩人和劇作家”。Cassandra是怎樣做到如此優秀的?美國續航教育就帶領大家瞭解一下Cassandra的大學申請經驗,看看她的申請文書有什麼不同。

收到美國八所藤校錄取的亞裔女孩,她的申請文書有何不同?

你的申請文書重點寫了什麼?

我的父母是移民,英語不是他們的強項。成長在移民家庭中,如何用語言互動對我來說是很一件有趣的事。在家裡聊天時,有些詞彙我們並不會翻譯成英文,而是用自己的語言代替。這也是為什麼我在家裡說話的方式和我在外面說話的方式完全不同。在我的成長過程中,有些人會因為我說的話而嘲笑我,即使這些話在我聽來很正常。因此,我把自己的經歷寫入了我的美國大學申請文書中。

Cassandra的申請文書節選

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,英語並不完全是英文,至少在發音上不是。例如,我們在讀snake(蛇)和snack(小吃)時發音一樣。我們的舌頭無法正確的發音。休息時間,我會和語言專家會面,也能明白來自馬來西亞的媽媽在說flim時其實是在表達film(電影)的意思。作為家人,我們完美的消化彼此的表達。)
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(投擲)和cash(現金)發音也沒有任何區別,這就是為什麼在教堂的時候,當我說“cashing out demons”時,人們會笑話我。我並沒有意識到這兩個單詞發音的區別 — 直到我的老師糾正了我讀“hammock”、“ladle”和“siphon”的發音。同學們也會因為我把“accept”讀成了“except”、“success”讀成了“sussess”而取笑我。在創意寫作室裡,文字卻在我最需要它們的時候背叛了我。)
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,我意識到將”flower ”讀成“flour”是不夠的。我拒絕了以前在家說話的方式,這個將我養育,教會了我一切的語言。其他所有人的父母,不論是博士還是大學教授,都在說著的口音的英語,為什麼我不能?)

收到美國八所藤校錄取的亞裔女孩,她的申請文書有何不同?

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晒黑的手說:”這是我來的地方”,她用自學的英語敘述了一個故事。)
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,她不得不在初中學習一門全新的語言:英語。在受到羞辱時,我的母親抵抗教師用尖酸的言辭,當著全班同學批評她的作文。當她開始哭泣時,班長站起來說”夠了”。)
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.(隨著母親的英語詞彙增長,我的英文水平越來越高。在學校活動中,我可以在3000人面前朗誦詩歌,我也曾採訪社會各界人士,編寫劇本,反對無知,並支持為無家可歸者、難民和被忽視的群體發。甚至有一次,我在紐約地鐵反駁了嘲弄亞裔街頭表演家的人們。我在那些貧窮的、英語非母語的孩子身上看到了我母親的影子,他們有很多故事想要分享,卻又不知如何說起。我想用語言作為針線,幫助他們編制一幅掛毯。)
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. (在我們家,說話的方式也可以很美麗。在我們家,語言沒有缺陷,而是情緒的表達。我們用文字建造了一座房子:櫃子裡有友善的蛇、坦克裡有小吃。雖然曲折、雖然凌亂,但這就是我們的家。)

可以看到,Cassandra文書並沒有介紹自己的學術成就或者實習經歷,而是將自己成長過程中對自己影響最大的經歷分享了出來,讓藤校看到了自己的與眾不同以及無窮的潛力。一個願意為弱者發聲,有堅定信念的年輕人怎麼會不引人欣賞?當你為弱者發聲,語言就有了力量。想到打造屬於自己獨一無二的美國大學申請文書嗎?請聯繫美國留學中介續航教育,特別的申請文書專屬於特別的你。

轉載自 收到美國八所藤校錄取的亞裔女孩,她的申請文書有何不同?

相關推薦

推薦中...