In the essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she states that “ Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use.” This wasn’t something I really thought pertained to me until I thought about it a little more. As I thought about it, it did I would change how I talked depending on who I was around or texting. As I read this essay I was thinking that this was more about someone who English is a second language, but it’s not we all have a different way of talking to certain people.
Another key passage that stands out for me in this essay is when Amy Tan say “ My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t notice any switch in my English.” The nine years I spent in the military I learned military lingo, which in self is it own language. At first my wife didn’t understand a word of it, she hated
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When Sandra Cisneros say “I wanted him to interrupt. I wanted my father to understand what it was I was scribbling,” I understand where she is coming from when talking about the lack of interest her father had in what she was doing. Growing up it was just my mother, my two siblings, and myself. My father wasn’t in the picture, so as a young kid I always wished that he would be around to see the things that I had accomplished or was interested in. I want my father to have an interest in my life as did Sandra. As a kid, you always strive for the attention of your parents.
By far my favorite essay is “It’s Good to Have a Guy” by David Stanley. One of the passages that stand out to me in this essay in “When you’re six, you’ve ‘got a guy.’ Your guy’s your dad.” I had a guy, but it wasn’t my dad it was my uncle. My uncle has been the closes thing to a father that I have had. If still to this day when I have problems with my marriage I go to my uncle. When I need advice for life choices that seem hard at the time he always has the right words to say to
Immigrants, a person or a family who moves from one country to another to get a permanent resident. Moving from one country to another is difficult. The two short stories “Why My Mother Can’t speak English” By Garry Engkent and “Ancestors- The Genetic Source” By David Suzuki has a focus point about immigrants and the variety of problems they face in Canada. Why My mother can’t speak English is a family that has migrated from China to Canada. Mr. Engkent’s mother came to Canada with her husband and son when she was forty. she was put at the restaurants kitchen right away. She worked straight seven days a week
The article Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan is a personal look into how language, and the dialects of that language, can affect a person 's life. It 's a look into how the people inside the cultural circles who use dialect derivatives of a major language are treated by people who exist outside of those cultural circles. It shows us how society treats a person using a "broken" or "limited" dialect, and how society 's treatment of these people can also affect the children who grow up using these "broken" dialects. Tan wrote this article try and convey to the reader that English is a colorful, and ever-changing language that has many dialects. Tan makes the point, several times throughout the article, that society judges you based on the type of English that you use. Throughout the article, Tan uses both her mother, herself and society 's treatment of them as evidence to support her idea. The purpose of pointing this out is to show the reader that the language a person uses, whether it be taught to them in school or by a parent at home, isn 't indicative of a person 's intelligence or value, and they shouldn 't be judged as less for using it.
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
Gloria Anzaldua, wrote the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” communicating and describing her adolescence in a society brimming with sexism, cultural imperialism, racism, low self-esteem, and identity formation. The reason one comes to America is to finer themselves academically, and intellectually. One must learn to speak English to live among the American’s, because that is the language they speak. Though, no one has the right to deprive you of your familiar tongue. At a young age, Anzaldua was scolded, even mistreated for speaking her native “Chicano” tongue. Anzaldúa described this ignorance, cruelty, and discrimination when she states: “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess – that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.” She overcomes this hostility throughout her life.
The author, Amy Tan is a fictional writer who is “fascinated by language in daily life” and inscribes her love for language into her work. As the article, “Mother Touge” progressed into the beginning paragraphs, she realized the different types of “Englishes” she uses. She was giving a speech to an audience with her mother in the crowd about her new book when she realized the language she speaks to the audience is different from her conversation with her mom. Then, later in the book she was walking with her husband and mother and noticed one of her “Englishes”. This type of English, “No waste money that way”, was a personal language that she only used around her family. She did not speak this “limited” language in public or professional settings because of judgment and disrespect. She
In the work of Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue” she provides a look into how she adapted her language to assimilate into American culture. She made changes to her language because her mother heavily relied on her for translation. She was the voice of her mother, relaying information in standard English to those who were unable to understand her mother’s broken english. She tells about her mother’s broken english and its impact on her communication to those outside their culture. Her mothers broken english limited others’ perception of her intelligence, and even her own perception of her mother was scewed: Tan said, “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mothers ‘limited’ English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” (419) The use of standard english was a critical component to Tan’s assimilation into American culture. Standard English was an element she acquired to help her mother but more importantly is was an element that helped in her gain success as a writer. Tan changed her ‘Englishes’ (family talk) to include standard English that she had learnt in school and through books, the forms of English that she did not use at home with her mother. (417-418) Tan realized the ch...
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
Language can defined the type of person you become and it has an influence on our choices as well as lifestyle. Language itself has become a way of seeing life in a different perspectives. Tan discusses the many ways in which language has played a role in her life and the result from it. I can relate to Tan’s experience to some extent because I come from a bilingual household too. Just like Tan, I am one of my mother’s main source of communication with people who don’t speak spanish. I believe the notion of Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is stating that just because someone who cannot speak the English language perfectly, is considered less intelligent to many compared to those who can understand and speaks it fluently. But what makes us all unique is that it is rare to find two or more people who speak the same exact English. Even though both Tan and I helped our parent and come from different ethnic backgrounds; Tan came from a Chinese family while I came from a Hispanic family. We both share similar ideas about the language spoken in our household, and it was also a big challenge for both of us while we were being raised by an immigrant parent who spoke only “limited English”(Tan
The writings of Amy Tan and Richard Rodriguez’s depicts a bilingual story based on two differing culture. On Mother Tongue, “Tan explores the effect of her mother’s “broken” English on her life and writing” (506). On the other hand, Richard Rodriguez “recounts the origin of his complex views of bilingual education through Public and Private Language” (512). From a child’s eyes, Tan and Rodriguez describe each joys and pain growing up in a non-English speaking family. Hence, may be viewed that cultural differences plays a major role on how one handles adversities.
I find it quite interesting to know how the author Ann Tan, has somewhat of a turn on and off switch. For instance, she stated in the beginning paragraphs of “Mother Tongue,” how she embraces the “power of language.” The author invites us into her world, giving us a clear picture of her own personal experiences that she encounters with the variations of languages. The author talked about the experience she had with her mother being in the room while giving a speech to a large group of people. According to the author, her speech was “filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases,” the English language she had never spoken to her mother. The author also admits how she finds herself speaking what she later calls in the essay, “broken English,” to her mother and sometimes her husband. Why? Because this was the primary language used
The Essay written by Amy Tan titled 'Mother Tongue' concludes with her saying, 'I knew I had succeeded where I counted when my mother finished my book and gave her understandable verdict' (39). The essay focuses on the prejudices of Amy and her mother. All her life, Amy's mother has been looked down upon due to the fact that she did not speak proper English. Amy defends her mother's 'Broken' English by the fact that she is Chinese and that the 'Simple' English spoken in her family 'Has become a language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk' (36). Little did she know that she was actually speaking more than one type of English. Amy Tan was successful in providing resourceful information in every aspect. This gave the reader a full understanding of the disadvantages Amy and her mother had with reading and writing. The Essay 'Mother Tongue' truly represents Amy Tan's love and passion for her mother as well as her writing. Finally getting the respect of her critics and lucratively connecting with the reaction her mother had to her book, 'So easy to read' (39). Was writing a book the best way to bond with your own mother? Is it a struggle to always have the urge to fit in? Was it healthy for her to take care of family situations all her life because her mother is unable to speak clear English?
In the beginning of the essay, she discusses the power of language. Tan write, "the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth"(1). Tan gives a lot of examples of how her mother was treated: "the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her"(3). Do you know why her mother was treated like that? Because spoke the simple English she knew described has "broken" or "fractured" English. Tan's mother express her English the way she actually
English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize her belief that there are more than one proper way (proper English) to communicate with each other. Tan hopes her audience to understand that the power of language- “the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth”- purposes to connect societies, cultures, and individuals, rather than to rank our intelligence.
Tan was born to a pair of Chinese immigrants. Her mother understood English extremely well, but the English she spoke was “broken.”(36) Many people not familiar with her way of speaking found it very difficult to understand her. As a result of this, Tan would have to pretend to be her mother, and she called people up to yell at them while her mother stood behind her and prompted her. This caused Tan to be ashamed of her mother throughout her youth, but as she grew, she realized that the language she shares with her mother is a “language of intimacy” (36) that she even uses when speaking with her husband.
Language is like a blooming flower in adversity – they are the most rare and beautiful of them all as it struggles to express itself. It blooms and flourishes in strength, awe, and passion as the riches of thought is imbibed from the seed and into a finished beauty. For others, a non-native person speaking in a language that they are not familiar with sprouts out like a weed – the way its thorns can puncture sympathy and comprehensibility. Amy Tan, however, addresses the nature of talk as being unique under its own conditions. In Tan's “Mother Tongue”, she discusses how her mother's incoherent language is “broken” and “limited” as compared to other native English speakers. When focusing on Amy Tan, she grows noticeably embarrassed with her mother's lack of acuteness in the language, which then influences Tan to “prove her mastery over the English language.” However, she soon learns from herself and -- most importantly -- her mother that a language's purpose is to capture a person's “intent, passion, imagery, and rhythm of speech and nature of thought.” With such an enticing elegance...