Amy Tan's Second Language

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In the article Mother Tongue, the author Amy Tan (1952), a well-known Chinese American writer, talks about her mother’s imperfect English makes a difference to her success in writing area. She used to describe her mother’s English as “broken” and it is the “limited” English gives Tan restriction of perceiving people, but she later realizes that delivering a clear message is more important than the competence of language speaking. On the other hand, the movie English Vinglish (2012), tells a story about an Indian housewife Shashi (2012) spares no effort to learn English and ends up not only obtaining friendship but also winning back the respect from her family. Therefore, the movie strengths the article’s claim that using language to convey opinion and idea is more vital during a conversation rather than constantly focusing on the language skill level. …show more content…

In the article, Amy Tan (1952) recalls her childhood experience that she feels embarrassed and ashamed of her mother’s English and sometimes even ignores her intentionally. In Tan’s opinion, a person’s language skill directly reflects the quality of his or her thoughts. Likewise, in the movie English Vinglish (2012), the housewife Shashi (2012) is treated unfairly by her family only because her poor English level. When Shashi’s friends whom she encountered on the English class show up on her niece’s wedding and talk with her in English joyfully, her husband seems very surprised at her fluent English. His astonished facial expression implies his discrimination to Shashi that she can do nothing with her poor English. What’s more, he pulls her clothes to stop her standing up and giving a speech because he doesn’t want to be mocked by other guests. The camera’s focus on her husband’s facial expression in both lens, from getting shocked to feeling embarrassed, emphasizes the claim that disrespect derives from people’s biased

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