Dear Mom and Dad,
お父さんとお母さんへ、

Thank you for speaking to me in Japanese from the time I was a crying infant.
赤ちゃんの時からずっと日本語で話してくれてありがとう

Thank you for making me go to Japanese school every Saturday, no matter how much I complained and cried.
どんなに文句を言っても、どんなに泣いても、毎週補習校に連れてってくれてありがとう

Thank you for helping me with my homework, even though I was ornery about it all the damn time.
機嫌悪く、苦情を言い続けていたのに、毎週国語や理科の宿題をするのを手伝ってくれてありがとう

Thank you for instilling an appreciation for both the U.S. and Japan in me and helping me understand that both cultures are valuable and important (albeit extremely different).
日本もアメリカも違うけれど、両方のすべての大切な事をわかるように教えてくれてありがとう

Thank you for being okay with my funky Japanese grammar, and my occasional English-mingled sentences.
あまりちゃんとしていない日本語を話したり英語でしか分からない言葉で返事ても意味を分かってくれてありがとう

Thank you for giving me the ability to communicate with my Japanese relatives and never having to worry that a language barrier would impede my relationship with them.
日本の親戚の人と話せないような心配がないように、日本語が十分話せる確認をしてくれてありがとう

Thank you for giving me the gift of being bilingual; it’s a skill that goes far beyond a resumé, and it has positively impacted my life far more than I could have ever imagined when I was younger.
言語がふたつある事は自分に対してすごく大切で、レズメを超えて日常生活を良くしてくれるので、ありがとう

Love, Rie
梨絵より