Thread by @Yascha_Mounk

Today, I published my first @newyorker article. It’s about how divided the United States are—and what that might do to our future. I hope you read it.

But if you’ll indulge me, I'd also like to say a few personal words about what this means to me.

1/n
newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…

I grew up in Germany, so I’m an immigrant to this country. I had my first English lesson in a public high school at the age of 10. By the age of 15, I spoke English about as well as an American high schooler who has taken a few language classes might speak French: barely.

2/n

For the last two years of high school, I was lucky enough to attend the European School in Karlsruhe. About half my lessons were in English.

I struggled. After my first few weeks at the school, I asked my mom whether she would be mad at me if I got held back by a year.

3/n

After a few months, my comprehension improved. After a year, I started to speak more fluently. I somehow plucked up the courage to apply to Cambridge—knowing next to nothing about the place—and got in. At the age of 18, I moved abroad for the first time.

4/n

I loved Cambridge. But my writing was terrible.

This was in part down to my school teachers, who had prized complexity over clarity. Naturally lazy, I got through high school on a simple strategy: if my teacher didn’t understand what I was saying, she’d give me an A.

5/n

But it was also because it’s really, really hard to write clear prose in a foreign language.

“That doesn’t sound right,” a friend would tell me.

“Is it grammatically incorrect?” I’d ask.

“No. But a native speaker would never say this,” they’d respond.

AAAAAAAARGH!!!!

6/n

At the beginning of my second year at Cambridge, a professor read an essay I’d written, and told me: “You seem to be a smart guy. But I have no idea what you’re saying.”

I was close to giving up.

7/n

But I was incredibly lucky. That professor went to enormous lengths to teach me how to write. Friends spent hours editing my essay drafts. Later on, I had the great luck of working with amazing editors who called attention to my mistakes—and helped me hone my style.

8/n

During all that time, I also had the best style guide any aspiring writer could wish for: a subscription to the @newyorker.

It never occurred to me that I myself might one day be writing in the pages of The New Yorker. That was for native speakers—and for real writers.

9/n

So this article represents something very special to me: the culmination of a long and hard educational journey.

10/n

Let’s be honest: I’m sharing this today because I’m feeling pretty chuffed (as, my inner editor reminds me, the Brits but not the Americans might put it).

But I’m also sharing it because I genuinely believe that just about anybody can become a good, clear writer.

11/n

Over the years, I have taught many students who wrote really poorly.

Some had, like me, learned English as a foreign language. Others, also like me, had picked up terrible writing habits in high school. Others still simply hadn’t put any work into learning how to write.

12/n

They all had one thing in common: if they put in the necessary effort, they wrote a whole lot better by the end of the term.

13/n

So to all those friends, editors and mentors who taught me how to write: THANK YOU.

To all those teachers and professors helping somebody else how to write right now: THANK YOU.

And to all those ESL students tempted to give up on becoming good writers: YOU CAN DO IT.

14/n

Finally, I just want to note how infuriatingly unjust it is that this immigrant gets to live his idiosyncratic American Dream while the country treats so many others with utmost cruelty.

This week’s cover depicts that injustice with heart-wrenching clarity.

15/n

My article, by the way, helps to explain how we've sunk so low by describing how American politics nationalized--and polarized--with the help of great, recent books by @dhopkins1776 and @LilyMasonPhD.

Read it and spread the word?

16/16

newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…