When I learned that my 71-year-old mother was playing Scrabble－a word game－against herself, I knew I had to do something．My husband suggested we give her a computer to play against．I wasn’t sure my mother was ready for it．After all, it had taken 10 years to persuade her to buy an electric cooker．Even so, we packed up our old computer and delivered it to my parents’ home．And so began my mother’s adventure in the world of computers．
当我得知我71岁的母亲在玩一种拼字游戏挑战自己时，我觉得我应该做点什么。我丈夫建议给她一台电脑玩。我不确定我母亲是否准备好了，毕竟，她花了10年时间才买了一台电饭锅。尽管如此，我们收拾好旧电脑，送到父母家。于是，我母亲开始了电脑世界的探险。
It also marked the beginning of an unusual teaching task for me. I’ve taught people of all ages, but I never thought I would be teaching my mother how to do anything．She has been the one teaching me all my life: to cool and sew; to enjoy the good times and put up with the bad. Now it was my turn to give something back.
对我来说，这也标志着一项不同寻常的教学任务的开始。我教过各个年龄段的人，但我从未想过我会教我的母亲。她教了我一辈子：冷却、缝纫；享受好时光，忍受坏时光。现在轮到我回馈了。
It wasn’t easy at the beginning. There was so much to explain and to introduce. Slowly but surely, my mother caught on, making notes in a little notebook. After a few months of Scrabble and other games, I decided it was time to introduce her to word processing. This proved to be a bigger challenge to her, so I gave her some homework I asked her to write me a letter, using different letter types, colors and spaces.
一开始并不容易，有太多的东西需要解释和介绍。我的母亲很慢，但也真的理解了，在一个小本子上做着笔记。经过几个月的拼字游戏和其他游戏的练习，我决定教她文字处理。这是一个更大的挑战，所以我给了她一些家庭作业，让她用不同的字母类型、颜色和空格给我写封信。
“Are you this demanding with your kindergarten pupils?” she asked.
“你对幼儿园的学生要求这么高吗？”她问。
“No, of course not, ” I said. “They already know how to use a computer.”
“当然不会，”我说，“他们已经知道如何使用电脑了。”
My mother isn’t the only one experiencing a fast personal growth period. Thanks to the computer, my father has finally got over his phone allergy. For as long as I can remember, any time I called, my mother would answer. Dad and I have had more phone conversations in the last two months than we’ve had in the past 20 years.
我的母亲并不是唯一一个经历个人快速成长期的人。多亏了电脑，我父亲终于客服了电话过敏。在我的记忆中，每次我打电话，都是母亲接。过去两个月里，父亲和我的电话交谈次数超过了过去20年。
