Amy Tan The Mother Tongue Summary

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Over the years the population of non-Americans whose second language is English have increased tremendously. These non-American may live in this country but they struggle with a life where they cannot be understood. Amy Tan wrote “The Mother Tongue” in which she declares to her audience that being bilingual can hurt people. While she grew up, her mother did not spoke the standard English that Tan had learn in school and books, but instead she spoke plain English. For example, Tan wrote about a conversation she had with her mother in which Tan’s mother was talking about a rich political gangster in Shanghai who wanted to be adopted by her family in which she uses simple yet improper English, such as “Now important person, very hard to inviting …show more content…

Tan’s mother English was imperfect which reflected the quality of services she receives. For example, Tan elucidate how the people in department stores, banks, and restaurants either ignore her, misinterpret her, or did not take her serious. Tan had to either disguise herself as her mother or interpret for her such as in a situation where she had to pretend to be her mother on the phone in which had to complain to her stockbroker in proper English. The stockbroker did not take her serious and then they flew to New York and her mother yelled at the manager in improper English, leaving Tan embarrassed. Another situation was when her mother went to the hospital to find out about her diagnosis of a brain tumor that was revealed from a CAT scan. Accord to her mother, she spoke perfect English with no mistake. However, the hospital declare that they lost her CAT scan. The staff showed no sympathy and did not apologize. She demanded for her daughter to be called at the hospital and when Tan arrive she spoked in her “perfect” English, the staff apologize and assured them that they would find her mother’s CAT scan and will hold a conference the following Monday. Although having English as a second language can be a struggle, Tan took it in as a positive influence her life. She wrote that she used all the “Englishes” she grew up with, in her writing in which it took a successful path in her writing

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