Here's how. I grew up in America, but my parents refused to speak English to me.

是這樣的我在美國長大，但我的父母拒絕對我說英語。

Even though my dad's American, we only communicated in Japanese 24/7, even in front of other Americans. For reference, here's a little taste of his Japanese.

雖然我爸爸是美國人，但我們全天候只用日語交流，即使在其他美國人面前也是如此。以下是他的日語，以供參考。

My dad's never lived in Japan but was able to pick up fluent Japanese from college classes and self-study.

我父親從未在日本生活過，但卻通過大學課程和自學掌握了一口流利的日語。

To this day, he and my Japanese immigrant mom are the only interracial couple I know of who've never communicated in English. This was obviously awesome for my Japanese growing up, but it means I lost out on thousands of hours of English exposure compared to my peers.

時至今日，他和我的日本移民母親是我所知道的唯一一對從未用英語交流過的異族夫妻。這對我的日語成長來說顯然是件好事，但這也意味著與同齡人相比，我失去了數千小時的英語接觸機會。

And this English deficiency snowballed into one of my biggest insecurities. Throughout my childhood, I was always one of the slow kids.

這種英語上的缺陷滾雪球般變成了我最大的不安全感之一。在我的童年時代，我一直是個慢吞吞的孩子。

In elementary school, I got thrown into time out multiple times because my teacher thought I was ignoring her instructions when really I just didn't understand them.

小學時，我曾多次被老師扔進 "暫停室"，因為老師認為我對她的指令置若罔聞，而實際上我只是不理解她的指令。

Another teacher recommended enrolling me in an alternative learning school because I wasn't academically inclined. It escalated to a point where my parents had to take me to a speech pathology lab to make sure I didn't have a communication disorder.

另一位老師建議我去另一所學校學習，因為我不喜歡學習。事情發展到後來，我的父母不得不帶我去語言病理實驗室檢查，以確保我沒有交流障礙。

Despite being so young at the time, I started questioning my own intelligence and wondering if something might be wrong with me. And it got even worse in middle school when my peers started making fun of me for gaps in my English, like even the smallest things.

儘管當時我還很小，但我開始懷疑自己的智力，懷疑自己是不是出了什麼問題。到了國中，情況變得更糟了，同學們開始嘲笑我在英語方面的差距，哪怕是很小的事情。

For example, they found it weird that I would call Louis Vuitton "Louis Vuitton" the way you would stress it in Japanese.

例如，他們覺得我把路易威登稱為 "Louis Vuitton "很奇怪，因為日語中的重音是 "Louis Vuitton"。

One time, even a teacher picked on me because I said "lumber man" instead of "lumberjack" and joked that I must not have grown up in America.

有一次，因為我說的是 "伐木工人 "而不是 "伐木工"，連老師都嘲笑我，還開玩笑說我一定不是在美國長大的。

I mean, how would you not internalize that as a kid? The last straw was when my dad noticed I didn't know what the word "intersection" meant when we stopped at a traffic light.

我的意思是，作為一個孩子，你怎麼會不把這些內化呢？最後一根稻草是當我爸發現我不知道 "十字路口 "這個詞是什麼意思時，我們在紅綠燈前停了下來。

I still remember that moment super vividly because it was the first time in my life that my dad ever spoke a word of English with me.

我至今仍對那一刻記憶猶新，因為那是我有生以來爸爸第一次和我說英語。

He was like, "You're 12 years old.

他說："你才 12 歲。

You don't know what the word 'intersection' means.

你不知道'交叉口'這個詞是什麼意思。

We got to fix this.

我們必須解決這個問題。

Let's start speaking English with each other from now on." So from that point forward, we started using English with each other whenever my mom wasn't with us.

讓我們從現在開始互相說英語吧"。從那時起，只要媽媽不在，我們就開始用英語交流。

Within a year, this increased my English exposure outside of school from zero hours to several hundred hours.

一年之內，我在校外接觸英語的時間從零增加到了幾百個小時。

This was still not nearly as many hours as my peers who speak English with both of their parents, but definitely enough to begin making a difference in my academic performance. For example, my score on the reading section of standardized tests shot up from the 41st percentile in sixth grade to the 99th percentile in 11th grade.

這雖然比不上我那些父母雙方都會說英語的同齡人，但絕對足以讓我的學習成績開始有所改觀。例如，我在標準化測試中閱讀部分的成績從六年級的第 41 百分位上升到十一年級的第 99 百分位。

Now as an adult, my English is up to speed, I think, and I'm beginning to take a little more pride in my language background. But would I want to put my future children through my childhood struggles even if it works out in the end?

現在，我長大成人了，英語水平也提高了，我開始為自己的語言背景感到自豪。但我是否願意讓我未來的孩子經歷我童年時的掙扎，即使最後能成功？

Or should society just be more accommodating towards people with multilingual upbringings?

或者說，社會是否應該對具有多語言背景的人更加包容？

If you have any insights, feel free to share them in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe.

如果您有任何見解，歡迎在評論中與我們分享，同時別忘了訂閱。