Essay Mother Tongue

Critical Analysis of "Mother Tongue" Essay
Nicholas Wiest
Beverly Williamson
English 111
September 21st, 2012
Critical Analysis Essay I have chosen "Mother Tongue" for the subject of my essay. I chose this
essay because Amy Tan has a unique writing style which has tone that is clear and identifiable. Tan
makes her arguments in a way that is easily understood. While her tone is sometimes humorous
and captivating, it still clarifies some serious issues. These qualities among others leave Tan's work
to be desired by almost any reader because her tone and style are both genuine and upfront. This
essay will talk about how Tan's work in her essay "Mother Tongue" uses several different styles and
tones to make her point of regarding the differences of her communications with her...show more
content...
Basically what the writer is trying to say is that if you consider who you're communicating with,
and think about how you are corresponding your thoughts, you can use it as a strong and effective
method of communicating in a clearer way. While Amy Tans' tone is carefully crafted and
constructed, she does have her own way of communicating that is unique. It could be compared
with hearing a story that is full of inherent truths from a sage elder, or someone you respect greatly.
Tan has a clearly knowledgeable and almost wise way of corresponding her thoughts and ideas.
There are traces of this tone in the text if you are keen enough to notice it (Tan p.37–38). To the
contrary of my previous point, this is an example of a tone that may not have been forged
purposely by the writer, but rather a tone that is simply natural to how Tan writes, an involuntary
product of how Tans' own personal experiences have fashioned themselves in her writings and
articles. If you've ever read any other of her works such as "The Joy Luck Club", you can notice a
similar tonality. Tans' tone could be described as patient, or fulfilling. The writer isn't afraid to take
her time in writing out a story in detail, and she has an excellent way of bringing her words around
full circle in a way that gives the reader a sense of closure. You can clearly gather from the text that
the writer has put a lot of time and effort into what she has written, without losing her
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Mother Tongue Essay
There are many bilingual and multicultural people in the world today. For many, the choices of
which language they use, and how they use it, correspond to what social or cultural community
they belong to. Amy Tan, a Chinese American novelist, portrays this well in her short essay
"Mother Tongue." Tan grew up in two vastly different worlds, using different "Englishes." The first
world, which consists of her close family, she speaks what we may call "broken" or "limited"
English. The second world, which is her business and professional world, Tan speaks and writes
perfect standard and academic English. Having to "shuttle" between these two communities with
very different languages has had many different positive and negative effects on...show more
content...
She realized that her "mother tongue" has become their "language of intimacy, a different sort of
English that relates to family talk,..."(Tan 61) Her "mother tongue" is the English she uses while
she is in her first world, her private world, which is a completely different cultural community. As
Tan was growing up, the speech she used in her family environment affected her results on
various tests at school. Many other Asian Americans had this similar problem, and had teachers
"who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to
me(Tan)."(Tan 64) This is because Math has only one correct answer, whereas English was a
"matter of opinion and personal experience."(Tan 63) As a result of this, Tan drove herself to
disprove others assumptions and became an English major. She wrote in a way to prove her
"mastery" over the English language. An example she gives is this line, edited from the final
version of her book, "'That was my mental quandary in its nascent state.'"(Tan 65) This is the type
of language she uses in her professional life. Her words are "filled with carefully wrought
grammatical phrases...all the forms of standard English that (she) had learned in school and through
books."(Tan 61) Without realizing it at first, Tan widened the gap between her professional
community and her private family

Essay On Mother Tongue
Amy Tan was born to two immigrants from China. She fell in love with literature even though she
was always encouraged to find a career in the math or science field because of her lack in English.
Tan studied at the San Jose State University where she received both her bachelors and master's
degree. Many others and I can relate to what Tan has to go through with having a different "Mother
Tongue" than others. Tan uses the essay "Mother Tongue" to inform her audience about how we all
use different "Englishes" throughout the day. English is a difficult language to learn. People do not
deserve to be mistreated for not knowing "perfect" English.
Tan always has loved language. Language is such a powerful tool that we use every day. "...it can
evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth" (pg. 479). Different "Englishes"
are used based on your audience. Depending on if you are at home, work or giving a speech like
Tan. Tan was giving a speech to a large group of people about her book "The Joy Luck Club." She
was using a type of language she does not speak at home. The English spoken at home...show more
content...
Going to public places can be quiet a difficult task when speaking "broken English." Tan's mother
had a difficult time at the hospital. She was trying to view her CAT scan results. She used her
best English to be able to communicate with the hospital, to let them know that she was anxious
to see the results. All she was able to understand was that they had lost her results and they didn't
even say sorry. Tan was called to make her message to the hospital clear. The CAT scan results
ended up misplaced and they were very sorry. This was not the only time Tan had been there to help
her mom communicate with others. Acting like her mother, Tan would take phone calls for her
when she needed information. Doing this act made it more easy for her mother to be able to be
understood and to

Essay on Amy TanвЂ™s A MotherвЂ™s Tongue
Amy Tan's A Mother's Tongue
The purpose of Amy Tan's essay, "Mother Tongue," is to show how challenging it can be if an
individual is raised by a parent who speaks "limited English" (36) as Tan's mother does, partially
because it can result in people being judged poorly by others. As Tan's primary care giver, her
mother was a significant part of her childhood, and she has a strong influence over Tan's writing style
. Being raised by her mother taught her that one's perception of the world is heavily based upon the
language spoken at home. Alternately, people's perceptions of one another are based largely on the
language used.
Tan was born to a pair of Chinese immigrants. Her mother understood English extremely well, but
...show more content...
This was because her mother's version of English and its modified rules caused Tan to be confused
on some of the questions.
Tan employs cause and effect when she is talking about her experiences with IQ tests and the SATs.
The fact that her mother spoke English the way she did made it very difficult for Tan to envision
what the test was asking, as with the questions where she could not identify one singular correct
answer. In her experience with language, maybe she had heard her mother would say something a
certain way, even though, technically, it was not grammatically correct. Her perceptions of things,
specifically the rules of language, were different because of the language used at her home.
She also incorporates problem and solution when she is describing how she had to talk for her
mother. Her belief is that people will not take you seriously if you do not speak proper English,
and to prove this, she shows how her mother encountered that kind of attitude often. Tan describes
how she had to call the stockbroker because her mother was concerned about not getting a check,
and how the hospital would not look for a lost CAT scan until Tan was called to mediate. Even
though the mother speaks English, Tan still needs to act as a translator.
Compare and contrast comes in to play at the very beginning of the essay when Tan is describing her
mother listening to her giving a lecture.

Comparisson of Mother Tounge and Everyday Use
Edgar Hernandez
Professor Ali
ENC 1102
March 20, 2014 Amy Tan's, "Mother Tongue" and Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" both share similar
traits in their writings of these two short stories. "Mother Tongue" revolves around the experiences
Tan and her mother had due to her mother's English speaking limitations, she also revolves her story
around the relationship of a mother and daughter. Alice walker on the other hand writes a story
narrated by "Mama" the mother of two daughters Maggie and Dee and explains the conflicting
relationship she has with Dee, both writers similarly emphasize on the relationships these mother
and daughter characters had and they unravel both short stories based on these relationships.
Although both short stories...show more content...
Bother writers also use different point of views. Tan speaks from first person point of view telling
her story as Walker narrates through "Mama" the mother of both daughters. The opposing points go
further than writers point of view, the short story 'Mother Tongue' truly represents Amy Tan's love
and passion for her mother as well as her writing. Walker's story tells more of a daughter who
despite been given everything, yet has turned into a undesirable human being and a daughter who
in some ways looks down on her mother and sister. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" she uses a
tactic to set a mood for the reader by bringing in the character Maggie. Walker's use of language
when describing Maggie creates a picture of a physically scarred and unintelligent girl. Maggie's
physical scarring is pointed out to the reader early in the story to convey the feeling of sympathy.
Walker accomplishes this when she states that Maggie has, "burn scars down her arms and legs"
(Walker 272). Tan also does this in a vaguely way when she writes " My mother has long realized
the limitations of her English as well" which also helps convey the feeling of empathy to the
character. The writers also focus on different point in their stories. "Mother Tongue" focuses on the
prejudices of Amy and her

A Critical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
In Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" she speaks about the influence of her mother not speaking what is
considered Standard English as she was growing up. Tan being a bilingual child, was often
embarrassed of her mother was also bilingual but spoke "broken" English. In this essay Tan's views
explain that although her mother did not speak standard English, it was the points, thoughts, and
ideas her mother was trying to get across that were really important. Tan, often being embarrassed
about her mother's English as a child, has now come to realize that just because her mother can't
speak perfect English that doesn't make her an inadequate human being. She as well as people from
department store to restaurants, thought that because her English was limited

Mother Tongue Literary Analysis
"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan is an example of powerful family love that helps to overcome
obstacles. According to Reinhold Niebuhr, "family life is too intimate to be preserved by the
spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice." Therefore, a
family is a large organism that needs to be nourished and maintained. "Mother Tongue" is a
sentimental and emotional story about a great writer Amy Tan and her lovely mother who
struggles from imperfect knowledge of the language of the country in which she lives. "Mother
Tongue" is one of the examples of a pure and honest love in the family of immigrants, who tried to
identify themselves in the new society and overcome the language barrier. As a Chinese woman,
Amy Tan, whose culture based on respect and veneration of parents, supports and helps her
mother on a long way to tide over her "broken" English. (Tan 119) The connection between a
daughter and a mother allows Amy to understand her mother's "limited" language just by a heart.
(Tan 119) Language is a very powerful and strong instrument, but the related blood between the
two main characters is capable to express everything without the words. Amy loved her mother so
much and did not want to hurt her feelings by calling her English "broken" or "fractured", "as if it
were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness". (Tan 119)
Despite the global misunderstanding of society and her mother, Amy thinks that her mother's
language "is vivid, direct full of observation and imagery." (Tan 119) It is her "mother tongue" and
she is ready to protect and support her in any situations. Almost every family of immigrants going
through a process of self–identification in the new society and suffers from language limitation.
Amy's mother faced many problems because of her imperfect English. Amy said: "when I was
fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she." (Tan 119) Like every
normal person, immigrant need to have a medical support, a bank account and a lot of simple vital
things, to get which becomes a big problem because of language limitation. The accident in the
hospital showed how people, whom the ordinary patient

Language In Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
Currently, there are over 6,000 living languages spoken in the world. Even with these many
languages spoken, people are still discriminated in America. Language is a part of many cultures
and daily life, for example in Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue", Tan says "I've heard other terms used,
'limited English,' for example. But they seem as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's
perceptions of the limited English speaker." Language should not be a border where people today are
still treated as "broken".
To begin with, in Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" (163
–168), it displays that language has an effect on
people's lives. Tan uses words like "broken", "fractured", and "limited" to describe the various
versions of English in her writing. Tan...show more content...
She sometimes uses it with her husband when she says "Not waste money that way." It has become
their language of intimacy (par. 4) because it connects to how her family speaks. Later, Tan mentions
that when her mother went to the hospital for a CAT scan. The hospital said that they had lost it and
did not apologize for it. The hospital also wanted to speak to the daughter. This shows that the
hospital saw Tan's mother as lacking "wholeness" because the hospital saw that because Tan's mother
couldn't speak perfect English, she wouldn't understand.
Next, in Richard Rodriguez's "Aria A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood," faces a similar dilemma.
Rodriguez's parents spoke "broken" English but perfect Spanish at home. This connects to the idea
of public vs private because his parents were uncomfortable with speaking in English but were
comfortable

Mother Tongue Essay
Not all people who speak the English language speak it the same way. It is very uncommon to find
two people that speak the exact same English because there are so many different forms of the
language. This is the argument that Amy Tan makes in her story, "Mother Tongue". Tan uses pathos
to portray to her audience how through her experiences with her mother and the Chinese language
she came to realize who she wanted to be and how she wanted to write.
In "Mother Tongue", Tan discusses the many ways in which the language that she was taught
affected her life. Throughout the story, she describes her relationship with her mother, who speaks
"broken" English, and how her perception of language has changed due to her mother. Whenever Tan
was...show more content...
Amy Tan also felt that standardized tests could not accurately determine a person's intelligence. She
effectively makes her argument by using rhetorical devices such as, "I wanted to capture what
language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her
speech and the nature of her thoughts" (Tan 768). When she said that standard tests cannot
determine a person's true intelligence, she was trying to say how people have different ways of
thinking and different types of intelligence, and yet these standard tests only can measure a certain
type of intelligence; therefore it really is kind of unfair, for lack of a better term.
Overall, the main idea of Tan's story is to stress that just because someone cannot speak English
to perfection does not in any way make them less intelligent than someone who is born in this
country and understands and speaks English fluently. Tan has judged and has been judged by her
language, and has seen her mother disrespected because of how she speaks but these experiences
have shaped her whole outlook on life. Through her essay, Tan wanted to send a powerful message
of how we ought to view people by their beautiful side and not by their shortcomings. Everyone has
a message to say, it may be different from yours and it might be grammatically incorrect but it does
not make the message wrong, it just makes it

In Mother Tongue, an essay written by Amy Tan, the fictional author explains how we all speak
different languages and how we are all categorized and treated differently by the way we speak.
She gives us examples and stories that have happened to her and how they made her become
"fascinated by language in daily life."The author states, "I spend a great deal of my time thinking
about the power of language– the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a
simple truth." In paragraphs 1 and 2, the authors begins by tellings the readers that she has always
loved language and how it is used by people in everyday life and she uses daily language as a part
of her work. In paragraph 3 the explains how during one her talks to a large group of people she
realizes how she also uses different Englishes. Amy realized this because when she was talking to
the group her mom had come to listen to her and she thought about how she talked to her mom
compared to how she talks to other people, in particular, the large group of people. This opened
her eyes to a whole other realm on how she uses her English while talking to her mom with
"broken" English the one she grew up with, and then speaking to others with standard English that
she was taught in school and in books. Amy quoted what her mother said about a political
gangster that showed up at her mother's wedding. To me it was very hard to understand and had
to reread it twice to try to make out what she was trying to say. I am not the only one who thinks
that. "You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she
actually understand." Amy explains that her mom can read " the Forbes report, listens to Wall
Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with
ease," but Amy can't understand them. Amy's mom can understand a lot of English but when she
speaks English, some of Amy's friends can barely understand any of it. Amy states that some only
understand 80 to 90 percent while others understand none of what she is saying when she talks. The
upside to this is that this formed Amy to see things differently in the world. When Amy was younger
she was ashamed of her mother's "broken" or

Identity In Mother Tongue, By Amy Tan
Everyone is born with a unique identity. The way we understand our self is influenced by our
identity. Our identity goes beyond daily and can be influenced by many things, such as the
environment we live in, dreams or culture. In Amy tan's essay mother tongue, she discusses about
society views on Asian stereotypes. Amy rejects theidentity of a foreigner because she does not
want to be labeled as what society views Asian Americans as. Amy also uses what the English
language symbolizes for her.
Amy rejects the identity of a foreigner because she doesn't want to b what everyone assumes. She
feels that she isn't that person because she has her own personality. Her whole life she has been a
translator for her mom and she had to grow up learning

Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue
The English language has many tongues. From the 1500's where people started migrating to the
thirteen colonies to today where America is surrounded by immigration. From the beginning of
history, society has been shaping English and its quality. It's shown in Amy Tan's essay "Mother
Tongue" the varying ways one speaks them, regardless of being the same language. The author's
mother is being discriminated against due to speaking a different English from the proper form of
English. Amy uses her personal experiences to contribute to the English– speaking community about
inequality of different tongues through rhetorical appeals such as pathos, ethos, and logos. Amy
Tan in her essay "Mother Tongue" claims that foreigners and immigrants who can't speak proper
English are treated differently. The author gives a good sense of who she is; building her credibility
to the reader. She first establishes that "'I am not a scholar of English or literature–– "I am a writer"'
but she "[uses] them all –– all the Englishes [she] grew up with." This is one way to earn the
reader's respect towards the author because Tan gives a sense of who she is as a writer and
English speaker. It would also connect with immigrants who also grew up with many Englishes.
Building a relationship with the reader and the author. Tan uses her past experiences growing up
with broken English. Specifying that there isn't just one type of English but many. She also
mentioned that she wrote a book The Joy Luck Club about her life and her writing. Conveying her
credibility in her work. Immigrant families that speak the same English as Tan's mother can
emotionally relate to having to deal with broken English. When Tan says "I had plenty of empirical
evidence to support me: 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," this supports her claim through repetition as in the whole text explains
the mistreat of Tan's mother. She has seen the discrimination her mother has gone through by
speaking a different English. They would go as far as pretending to not hear her mother as if they
didn't speak the

Mother Tongue
Rhetorical Analysis of "Mother Tongue" written by Amy Tan "So easy to read"(p.4). Amy Tan
ends her essay, "Mother Tongue" with this short and even grammatically wrong sentence. She
tells us this mother's brief review is a proof of success of her writing. Why does she think that
easiness is an essence of her writing? She suggests answers to this question by her essay. In her
essay, Amy Tan effectively convinces her readers that "broken English" is not an inferior language,
but just a different style of English that has values in it by depicting her personal experiences and
strong appeal to pathos. She makes her readers to have sympathetic emotions for her mother and
hostile emotion for people who was rude to her by...show more content...
This comparison shows the clear differences between English and its variation, and makes readers
to easily figure out what her mother's language actually is. Although her mother's tongue is
imperfect, Tan says that her mother's thought is not inferior at all. She rather tells that "my
mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear
it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way
I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world" (P.1). This part clearly shows Tan's
affection to her mother and mother's language. Tan's admiration to her mother helps readers to
understand Tan's mother and to be more attached to her. After she shows the way that her mother
talks, she tells us two stories about her mother that she received unfair treatment in bank and
hospital because of her language. Especially, anecdote regarding the CAT scan effectively appeals
to pathos by arousing reader's sympathy for her mother. Her mother went to hospital to hear a result
of her brain CAT scan, but the hospital lost her CAT scan. However, they did not apologize to her
mother, and they wanted her have another appointment to get a diagnosis.

Summary Of Mother Tongue
Linguistic Beauty of "Mother Tongue" In Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue", Tan discusses how
the way her bilingual mother speaks negatively affects how people perceive her intellect. Despite
the fact that Tan's mother is actually very intelligent and understands more than many people
expect her to, she often is ignored and belittled because of how she speaks. Tan feels that those
who ignore and belittle her mom are oblivious to the beauty, complexity, and richness of her
mother's speech. In Tan's essay "Mother Tongue", Tan shows that the belief that standard English
is inherently better than other forms of English is flawed by questioning the prominence of
proper English and sharing how rich and beautiful her mother's English can be. Time and time
again, Tan's mother's inability to speak proper English is seen by standard English speakers as a
sign that she is unintelligent; they believe that the way she speaks is wrong and therefore the
things she has to say are not important. This belief is so pervasive that as a teen, Tan herself used
to believe that her mother was not smart because of how she spoke. Because Tan's mother's
speech did not follow the rules of traditional English, Tan "believed that her [mother's] English
reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly, her
thoughts were imperfect" (146). Because Tan's mother speaks in ways that are described as
"broken" and "limited", as a teen Tan felt her mother's language indicated that her mom was simple
minded. However, as Tan grew up, she came to appreciate the beauty and intellect behind her
mother's words. While Tan's friends comment that they cannot understand a majority of what Tan's
mother says, Tan hears her mother's speech as "perfectly clear, perfectly natural", and remarks that
"her language, as [she] hear[s] it, is vivid, direct, full of observations and imagery" (146). Tan's
friends seem to hear Tan's mother's speech on a surface level; since they cannot understand what she
is trying to say, they cannot understand how rich her language is. Just because Tan's friends do not
understand her mother, it does not make the intricacies of how she speaks any less unique. The
tendency of standard English

Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
What does it feel like to be raised in an immigrant family? In the essay "Mother tongue" by Amy Tan,
the author describes how her mother's English influences her in her career and life that the "mother
tongue" does not limit her as a writer, but shaped her and her perception on life instead. And her
attitude to her mother's English changes from the initial embarrassment to the final appreciation.
Tan's attitude towards her mother's English begins with embarrassment and humiliation. Growing up
in an immigrant family which speaks imperfect English, Tan witnesses many discriminations that
her mother has encountered in department stores or at banks, those experiences help to shape
Tan's opinion to her mother's English. For example, Tan states that "[she] was ashamed of [her
mother's] English. [She] believed that [her mother's] English reflected the quality of what [her]
mother had to say" (508). In young Amy's opinion, her mother's expressions and thoughts are
broken and imperfect like the way she speaks, and she believes that linguistic expression is linked
to a person's intelligence. As a result, she was ashamed of her mother in public because of her
fractured English. Besides, Tan recalls another incident of her pretending to be her mother to talk to
a stockbroker. Tan's mother was using broken English to give Tan instructions on how to talk on the
phone. She describes that her mother said, "' So mad he lied to me, losing me money'" ( Tan 508).
The author uses

Summary Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
In the essay, "Mother Tongue", Amy Tan lays out examples of noticing the different Englishes in
her life and how she incorporates them into her writing. She also breaks down the different versions
of English that have taken root in her life. Tan notes that she includes all the Englishes of her life in
her book, The Joy Luck Club. Tan, the daughter of immigrants, learned to navigate between the
"perfect" English of her professional life and the "broken" English of her youth. The author's
main claim of there being no perfect way of speaking English is one that can be easily recognized
because Tan gives clear examples of the diverse versions of English in her life, she pinpoints
moments in which she sees the differences and discovers how to accept and acclimate these
differences to her life and career.
The author's purpose in writing this essay is to show that there are different forms of English – there
is no one way of speaking the language. The moment of realization for Tan occurs when she is
speaking to a group of professionals and notices that she is speaking to them differently than she
would her mother. Tan obviously sees the difference in her speech pattern when she notes, "Just
last week, as I was walking down the street with her, I again found myself conscious of the English
I was using, the English I do use with her." (Tan, 2006) In spotting her different versions of English
with her mother, Tan proves the point of her essay. She is correct in her theory that we speak to
different people in our lives in a variety of different manners. She brings to light an occasion with her
mother's stockbroker where her mother's "broken" English would have caused confusion and Tan
had to represent her mother with a clearer English to make the point adequately. In that one memory,
Tan integrates the English people believe they should hear and the English that exists in her life.
The author realized that her mother's form of English is one she automatically slips into when she
is around her family, it is her "intimate" form of English. As Tan and her mother are looking in
furniture stores and debating prices, she begins speaking to her mother using the "imperfect" English
she grew up with. She states, "We are talking

My Mother Tongue Essay
Language is simply a tool for people of the universe to communicate with one another and it makes
the World more complicated but also interesting. Language makes you share something, makes
people understand you through expressing yourself or your opinion. Starting from the very early
stages of human life there've been lots of various languages which were the ways for the connection
among populations. Now, in our modern days we have many languages from the very famous and
international ones to the languages of small communities. Every culture has its own main language
and people value their own language differently from many aspects. For some people speaking in
your own "mother tongue" where you must speak the language of the place you've born is important,
for...show more content...
It's something that a person learns from birth, it's a first language, it's a native language etc. But here
in the article, it's something associated with the Amy Tan's mother and her tongue, she speaks her
own language, there's a special communication between them. "...But to me my mother's English
is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue" The author mainly writes about the
relationship between her and her mother, and also the effect of "broken English" in their life.
She was born in the USA, California differently from her mother who was born in China and then
migrated to the USA. She describes herself as a language lover, a simple writer who likes
thinking about the power of language, creativities, imaginations, emotions and ideas it can evoke.
She's not an expert on English but enjoys being herself with her identity, it's not important where
she comes from or which language she speaks for herself. But, for the people around her and her
family it's a great deal sometimes. Not having enough knowledge in a particular language or being
not able to express yourself while you're intelligent actually is a serious issue for those people. She
is lucky about being

Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan
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...show more content...
I had to always disprove that Asian–Americans are not just good at only math and science. My
capabilities of acquiring a stellar English skill are not much different from the average American
kid next door. Luckily for me as the years went by the doubts began to diminish, especially in the
minds of my classmates. I have accomplished what I set out to do and that was to rid the qualm
from skeptics' minds. Slowly I have become more comfortable incorporating two opposing forces in
my life, just as Tan did with her writing styles.
As person living with the gift of dual language, Tan's essay allowed some insight into my own life.
She argued that a person's limitation on language does not reflect their perspective on society or
events of the world. The limitation is more of a token than a deficiency, people having these
language issues must come up with an exclusive way to portray thoughts and ideas; therefore,
enhancing their perceptual knowledge of the world around. Growing up listening to my mother's
English, I have learned to adapt and am able to fully understand her, even though I constantly catch
myself trying to correct her. The way she conveys her thoughts and ideas is what makes her unique
and who am I to change her by correcting her idiosyncrasies. Although I have become accustomed to
my mother's English there are certain things she says that even

Mother Tongue Summary
Shuyang Jia
Dr. Olga Filatova
ENG 107
October 3 2017
Overcome Language Barrier(A summary and respond to Amy Tan's Mother Tongue)
In Amy Tan's Mother Tongue, Amy described her experience of growing up in a Chinese immigrant
family with broken English. In the essay Amy writes about her mother tells a story of a family
matter back in China with incomprehensible English but she still considers it is easy to understand
as she grew up listening to her mother's English. She thinks that her experience of growing up in
such limited language background influence her English speaking more than her peers. For
example her understanding of logical class subjects like Math are much stronger than other kids.
The author sees the perks of born and raised in such an environment but cannot help noticing public
disrespect to people who speak limited English. Her mother as her closest example: she is scared to
be disrespected for speaking broken English to her stockbroker, so she let Amy answer the phone.
And the time when Amy gets answers immediately from the hospital but her mother endures
disrespect and impatience because of limited English.
The author later tells her story of being in English writing major during college and the difficulties
she had to overcome. "I was told by my former boss that writing was my worst skill and I should
hone my talents toward account management." Says Amy in the essay. However, because of her
nature of favoring challenge, she got through and starts to

My Mother's Tongue by Amy Tan
In the personal essay "My Mothers Tongue" (1990), Amy Tan, widely known author explains her
insights on language and culture identity using details and memories from her own life experiences.
Tan conceals that the language in which her mother used with her "was the language that helped
shape the way [she] saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world" (1208) and in the
process it made her who she is today as an author. Tan illuminates the euro centricity of the Master
Narrative by retelling stories of her mother being treated poorly because of her "broken" or
"limited" English. She recalls many past experiences where her mother suffered from bad service
and treatment from restaurants, stockbrokers, and even hospitals. Using examples from her personal
life Tan gets her point across about language and culture characteristics in order to show how
Chinese culture is affected by the master narrative and also encourages others to include a variety of
cultures in order to overcome bias opinions. Tan's apparent audience can be ranged from the child of
an immigrant to a doctor and offers an authentic and rich portrayal of Chinese history through her
conflicting experience of her Chinese and American cultures.
In the essay "Straw into Gold: The Metamorphosis of the Everyday" (1984), Sandra Cisneros,
nationally known Mexican–American author, uses an informal tone and fragment sentences such as
" I'd never seen anybody make corn tortillas. Ever" (1226) to help create a voice

Essay Mother Tongue

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Essay Mother Tongue