Amy Tan Mother Tongue Quotes

In the story “Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tan, Mrs. Tan talks about (in the book) her life and how she grew up with different Englishes was very hard and how it has affected her today. The setting of the book goes from being at lecture to the past of Amy Tan and her mother along with the different Englishes she had to come accustomed to. In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, the author’s attitude towards the “different Englishes” she grew up with is fascinated. Amy Tan conveys this attitude through wanting to learn all different kinds of Englishes, her use of Englishes in her novel, and the acceptance she developed of her mother’s broken English.

First of all, Amy Tan wanting to learn all different kinds of Englishes. In the essay, Tan demonstrates that

The narrator explains a quote she remembered that her mother said using the English that her mother uses, “Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off the street kind. He is like Du Zong—but not Tsung-ming Island people. The local people call putong, the river east side, he belong to that side local people. The man want to ask Du Zong father wasn’t look down on him, but didn’t take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. Now important person, very hard to inviting him. Respect for making big celebration, he shows up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social life that way. If too important won’t have to stay too long. He come to my wedding. I didn’t see, I heard it. I gone to boy’s side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen.”(108). Another example is when her (the author) mother use to have her call people on the phone pretending it was her. “Why he don’t send me my check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.” (110). After these incidents had occurred a while back, the author says: “I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, the English she used with me, my translation of her English, and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese.” (113). This quote not only shows examples of the different Englishes in her novel, but it also explains how she begins to write stories using her

In the essay, Tan demonstrates: “Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks.” “When I was growing up, my mother’s limited English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English.” “Fortunately, I later decided I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided upon was my mother, because these were stories about mothers. So with this reader in mind, I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, the English she used with me, my translation of her Chinese, and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese. I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech, and the nature of her thoughts.” So in this quote, it explains how she learned to accept her mother’s broken English and how they have benefited her. In this paragraph, we learned how Amy Tan conveys acceptance in her mother’s broken