the chinese diaspora, yo

So it's always cool to meet peeps from the non-US Chinese diaspora. One of my students this semester, just in my office, is from Chile. His parents are from Taiwan, but he was born and grew up in Santiago. He went to schools taught in English but of course also grew up with Spanish. He says he really thinks in Spanish, then translates those thoughts into English when he writes. It's obvious in his writing. He's definitely very smart, but he gets tripped up in awkward syntax and vocabulary.