本来我并没有打算写一篇英文版的，但是看到有父母说希望他们的孩子也能看到我的分享，可能对他们来说英文会更方便一点吧。这并不是一篇一对一的翻译，因为中文写作对我来说还是有很多限制的，但是这是我真实的完整的想法。希望有帮助！
原文在这里：http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/znjy/3718247.html
There were many skeptical comments to my previous postings, primarily questioning my self-identification as an "ARC", an American-raised Chinese. I am not surprised. After all, we do live in age when internet fraud and trolling are rampant, and I can certainly understand parents taking more precautions when it comes to internet advice about how to rear children. However, what I did not expect was the reason behind such skepticism: that apparently my style of writing was too "Chinese", and therefore I could not have been raised in the States.
Being a law school student, I can't help but notice the leaps of logics made in this argument, and I beg to differ on two of its fundamental assumptions: 1) that one can arrive at an absolute identification of a person's country of upbringing based purely on his skill and style of writing as evidenced in a few short paragraphs; and 2) that a person cannot be simultaneously fluent in two or more languages in both vocabulary and way of expression.
There are many factors that influence the formation of a person's writing style and his level of aptitude, such as talent, practice, education, and life experiences (including country of upbringing). While a reasonable conjecture of a person's writing level may be made knowing one or more of these factors, the reverse, accurately deducing a single factor from a writing sample, cannot be done without taking into account all of the other variables. This deduction process is made even more difficult by the fact that good writers possess the ability to change their styles of writing as needed based on audience and circumstance. A few short sample paragraphs in a single forum is clearly not representative of a writer's range as a whole.
One who has a knack for languages or has a strong passion for it may be able to carry over skills from his mother-tongue to another newly acquired one and be equally fluent in each. I myself moved to the US from China when I was ten. I was lucky to have parents who instilled in me a deep appreciation of Chinese language and literature. My mother especially was a talented writer and speaker. To this day I still remember sitting in her lap when I was five or six and listening to her reading stories from classics like Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In elementary school, I penned articles for student publications and my essays were regularly selected for inclusion in anthologies. After I moved to the US, it took me approximately a year to overcome the language barrier as my initial English level was roughly that of a toddler. I started from having to look up almost every single word in the Sesame Street books to being admitted to the gifted English class in 7th grade. Again I was blessed with teachers who were not just capable instructors but true educators; they recognized my talents and nurtured them. They helped me discover the subtle differences in connotation and definition, the importance of precision and concision, and the joy of Shakespeare and other English classics. I grew to love English as a second mother-tongue. With their encouragements, I started writing for essay competitions, winning my first state-wide contest in 8th grade with a piece on Twelfth Night.
It has been more than 17 years since I left China, but my passion for Chinese has never waned even as my love for English has waxed. I read modern classics like Decoded (解密) and The Three-Body Problem (三体) in Chinese, I watch Chinese period dramas like Nirvana in Fire while on the treadmill, I lead a mandarin-speaking Bible study for Chinese students at our church, and of course I banter in Chinese with my Chinese-born-and-raised husband all the time at home. I am sure I am not the only one comfortably and happily straddling life in two languages, and my Chinese still has a long way to go to catchup with that of my husband. But what I hope my story has conveyed is that being truly bilingual and bicultural is not an impossibility. It is a very real joy that I feel privileged to experience every day, and I am thankful to my parents and teachers for making this life possible.
