Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The importance of language,culture and identity
Amy Tan Mother Tongue
Amy tan mother tongue explained
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The importance of language,culture and identity
How language affects our daily life. Language is truly part of our identity: our languages shape who we are. That is why we always have to be tolerant and comprehensive with others’ accents, typical phrases, or grammatical errors. Writers that really make an impact when referring to language and identity are Gloria Anzaldua and Amy Tan, with their readings “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” and “Mother Tongue” respectively. These two writers, with completely different backgrounds, shared their views about how language and identity are intertwined. First, Anzaldua writes about her experience as a multilingual Chicana, who faced harsh criticism from not only Anglos but also other Spanish speakers (Chicanos and non-Chicanos); an experience that …show more content…
The biggest difficulties Tan described in her reading are the ones related to her mother’s “broken English,” Tan felt ashamed of her mother’s English. She believed that “[her mother’s] English reflected the quality of what [her mother] had to say.” Native English speaker pretended not to understand nor even one word from Tan’s mother. In her reading, Tan describes a situation where her mom went to the doctor to pick up some test results and the doctors told Tan’s mother they lost her results, the doctors didn’t even apologize to Tan’s mother. After a while asking the doctors to call her daughter, Tan’s mother made Tan ask for the results, and magically the doctors apologize and told Tan they were going to do their best to find the results. If Anzaldua would have a chance to read Tan’s essay, Anzaldua would described Tan’s mother situation as a “linguistic terrorism.” According to Anzaldua “linguistic terrorism” is the “repeated attacks on our native language diminish our sense of self.” Again, tolerance and immigrants seem not to fit in the same sentence, but what is interesting is that Domenico Maceri, a U.S writer, in his essay “America’s Languages: Tower of Babel or Asset?” he claims that “Learning English is important
“Se Habla Español,” is written by a Latin author, Tanya Barrientos; and Amy Tan, a Chinese author, wrote “Mother Tongue”. In both literate narratives the authors write about their experiences with language and how it impacted their lives. In This essay we will be discussing the similarities as well as the differences in the stories and the authors of “Se Habla Español” and “Mother Tongue”. We will discuss how both authors use a play on words in their titles, how language has impacted their lives, how struggling with language has made them feel emotionally, and how both authors dealt with these issues.
While Anzaldúa makes great points about the struggles of a Chicana women in America, her arguments imply that Mexican people are the only people that have to adapt to American culture. While Mexican people should feel free to express their cultures freely, language is a much more complex issue; it is not simply solved by not accommodating to English speakers. English speakers must strive to embrace other cultures and languages, and understand that they do not necessarily have to speak that language to accept
In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, an excerpt from her book Borderlands/La Fronter in 1987, she demonstrates that identity can be asserted through language. You can tell a lot about a person by their language. Language is your way of representing who you are as a person, and most importantly, your culture. Culture defines the most about a person. Anzaldúa shares her aggravation of not being able to speak her language, “until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself" (Anzaldúa 378). Being seen as an individual of English as Second Language (ESL), Anzaldúa does not appreciate how she has to assist in translating to English or Spanish, where she would rather speak Spanglish. “[A]s long as I have to accommodate the English speaker rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate” (Anzaldúa 378). Talking bad about her language severely impacts her identity, “I am my language” (Anzaldúa 378). A person’s identity should not be seen less because of the language they speak. Anzaldúa states that she will have her voice, though she cannot express her passion for her language with the restraint of no freedom act to embrace it, she will. Her audiences that she is reaching to are those who share the same struggle of their identities just like her, and also speaking out to people who do look down upon people like her because of where she is form and what language she speaks.
In the expert “How to tame a wild tongue” from Gloria Anzaldua’s book Borderlands/La Frontera, Anzaldua emphasizes the interrelation of language with social and personal identity. In the text, Anzaldua relays her experiences of racial and cultural barriers embodied throughout language, both of which have led to a degraded version of her ultimate sense of self and personal identity. The underlying message is portrayed in one way with the use of intricate rhetoric, in which Anzaldua makes use of the inclusion of particular phrases in “Chicano Spanish” to bring insight into the dynamic of the linguistics system. She also includes first hand experiences to provide vivid descriptions and realistic accounts of how she has experienced a curtailed sense of self. Lastly, Anzaldua employs an emphasis to the overall message through the use of a profoundly distinct yet personal tone, which contributes to the depiction of societal turmoil.
Preceding her youth, in 1977, Anzaldua became a High School English teacher to Chicano students. She had requested to buy Chicano texts, but was rejected to do so. The principal of the school she worked for told her, in Anzaldua’s words: “He claimed that I was supposed to teach “American” and English literature.” She then taught the text at the risk of being fired. Anzaldua described, “Being Mexican is a state of soul – not on of mind.” All in all, the reprimanding she had to endure only made her stronger: “Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself.” It led to Anzaldua embracing her Mexican culture even more, contrary to shoving it aside. Anzaldua transformed her beliefs into something both cultures can applaud, and be honored
At the beginning of the essay, Anzaldúa recounts a time when she was at the dentist. He told her, “We’re going to have to control your tongue” (33). Although he was referring to her physical tongue, Anzaldúa uses this example as a metaphor for language. The dentist, who is trying to cap her tooth, symbolizes the U.S. who is similarly seeking to restrict the rights of minority groups. Nevertheless, the tongue is preventing the dentist from doing his job. Likewise, there are several minority groups who refuse to abide to the laws of dominant cultures and are fighting back. Anzaldúa also touches on a personal story that happened at school. When she was younger, she was sent to the corner because apparently, she spoke back to her Anglo teacher. The author argues that she was unfairly scolded because she was only telling her teacher how to pronounce her name. Her teacher warned her, “If you want to be American, speak American. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.” This short story provides an understanding of what Anzaldúa’s life was like. It demonstrates how even at a young age, she was continually pressured because of where comes
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...
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
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.
Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as “broken” and “fractured”, Amy Tan’s love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of English that surrounded her. In her short essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one’s inability to speak the way society expects. Disallowing others to prove their misconceptions of her, Tan exerted herself in excelling at English throughout school. She felt a need to rebel against the proverbial view that writing is not a strong suit of someone who grew up learning English in an immigrant family. Attempting to prove her mastery of the English language, Tan discovered her writing did not show who she truly was. She was an Asian-American, not just Asian, not just American, but that she belonged in both demographics. Disregarding the idea that her mother’s English could be something of a social deficit, a learning limitation, Tan expanded and cultivated her writing style to incorporate both the language she learned in school, as well as the variation of it spoken by her mother. Tan learned that in order to satisfy herself, she needed to acknowledge both of her “Englishes” (Tan 128).
While reading this article one of the most shocking sections were when the students were talking to Monzó and sharing their outlook on their place and their language’s place in society. These students even at this early age are feeling how devalued their first language has been. They feel like they have to speak the right* English, only use English in public places, never their first language, and that they must assimilate to the American culture as much as possible. This reminded me of a chapter in Lippi-Green (2012)’s text. Within this chapter Lippi-Green (2012) discusses how in the United States Spanish speakers are not only expected to learn English but they are expected to learn and utilize the right* English determined by the majority and assimilate entirely to American culture. Throughout Monzó and Rueda (2009)’s text the children in conversations expressed their observation of the social order in relation to language and race. This was surprising to me since they are only in 5th grade. During a conversation with one of the children Monzó and Rueda (2009) recorded an alarming statement, “He said that his mother could not be considered American because she did not...
According to dictionary.com, they define language as a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical are of the same cultural tradition. Language reveals many things about one’s identity. It can reveal one’s religion, age, socio-economic class or nationality. For some, language is the most important thing when identifying themselves. For others, it is not as important. Worldwide, there are thousands of different languages spoken. People group themselves according to the language they speak and if you do not know the language, you cannot be a part of that group. Often, we do not realize our native language until we travel to another country who speaks a language foreign to us. Language is our key to a social life. For example, if you had two roommates in which one spoke English and the other did not, you would naturally gravitate towards the English speaking one. So yes, I believe that language is connected to one’s identity.
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.
The author began the story by using a metaphor, she compares the process of acculturation to a painful dentist visit where the dentist is trying to control and hold down her tongue, which is a representation of her language (Anzaldua 8). She appeals to the readers by using a clever metaphor comparing her tongue to freedom of speech or language, and the dentist to the oppressors of her culture and language the people who are apart of the dominant culture. Anzaldua also discusses how different cultures and influences determine which language people use to speak to one another. Anzaldua herself writes, “ Often with Mexicanas and Latinas we’ll speak English as a neutral language” (Anzaldua 8). Anzaldua’s point is that it is difficult to know which language to speak when feeling afraid or ashamed of what others may think. Moreover, Anzaldua discusses problems such as not being allowed to speak her native language. She writes about remembering as a child how during school speaking Spanish was forbidden and being caught speaking it would mean you would be reprimanded. Anzaldua writes “ I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess--that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” (Anzaldua 5). In making this comment she is showing us that throughout the school day you’re
In the essay “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan, the author, gives a different, a more upbeat outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing which helps the audience understand what is being presented at ease. Her mother plays an important role in her outlook of language, because she helps her realize that language not only allows one to be a part of a culture but create one’s identity in society. Amy Tan shares her real life stories about cultural racism and the struggle to survive in America as an immigrant without showing any emotions, which is a wonderful epiphany for the audience in realizing