Mother Tongues
ShortStory 3,658 words Recommended by 7 award/anthology sources
A Chinese woman living in the Bay Area needs to raise money to get her daughter into Stanford. She tries to sell her English-language proficiency, but even after fifteen years, it’s not good enough. But her native fluency in Mandarin is worth a lot, if she’s willing to part with her native language.
Quasar links out; the story lives on Asimov's, where the author gets the click.