Most people who spend a life in a second language return to their first one. A letter to my future self about the room I hope to be sitting in — and who decides whether anyone in it will understand me.

Remember when entertainment meant putting a few coins into a machine? Before games lived in our phones, consoles downloaded updates overnight, and entertainment followed us everywhere we went. For many of us in our thirties, the shift has happened remarkably quickly. We grew up with physical experiences. Arcade games, CDs, disposable cameras, paper maps and trips to the video store were simply part of everyday life. Then, almost without noticing, everything became digital. Arcades became...