She spoke excellent English, but her mother did not. When her mother would speak in the English language, Tan would be ashamed of her mother’s strong accent. She was ashamed of her mother’s tongue because her English language was broken as Tan described it, bringing attention to herself. She did not like speaking to customer service to interpret for her mother all the time. Tan wanted her own independence from her family, and having to speak for her mother made her feel like her mother was weighing her down.…
In her article, “Mother’s tongue”, Amy Tan narrates the changes of cognition of her mother’s tongue based on her own experiences. She begins her essay by introducing herself as a writer instead of a scholar of English, which ingeniously makes a closer connection with readers. She describes three personal anecdotes from different time periods of her lifetime to create a comprehensive view for the definition of “Mother’s tongue”. The first one happened recently at her speech, which is the immediate cause for her to think more about different Englishes she uses in fornt of public and family. She made a comparison of the way she talks to her husband and to the audience.…
Assignment 3 Comparison Although Richard Rodriguez and Amy Tan both had a distinct perception of the importance of their intimate family language, they both had the same similarities of facing the struggles they perceived society required of them which was learning the English language. Both Tan and Rodriguez faced these struggles at different points of their lives and had to manage whether they would let the English language conflict with their family’s language. They are fighting to identify whom they want to be in society and whether they want to maintain their roots and language of their culture or adapt to where they now reside. Aside from their differences the similarities they both shared with each other was significant due to them being in the same position and deciding whether they wanted to…
Language can also effect people’s emotions everyday. Although these three themes are present in each interpretation there are unique points in the pieces as well. Language is an essential part of human life, it is how…
The existing conflict with language is to not only about English itself, but also about the relationship between Tan and her mother. It is crucial to understand that Tan’s original mentality was that her mother’s “English reflected the quality of what she had to say (...) and because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.” More importantly, the voice used in the essay reflects Tan’s own opinions on English, so shifts to a softer tone and enhanced…
The writers’ method of writing is clear and well thought out, but there is also the matter of what is actually being communicated, as appose to how she gets her thoughts across. While Tan explains the difficulties that her mother has with communicating clearly, she makes it clear that she has an unwavering respect for her mother, regardless of her misgivings and barriers. Although there aren’t many references to this fact directly in the text, it’s a kind of undertone that sets in with the reader, possibly without even being noticed. The writer does an exceptional job conveying this idea subtly, and without depositing it into the text. This is an example of how Tan has honed into her writing skills, while also using her natural abilities and personal identity to communicate…
Summary: Mother Tongue is a story about the “broken English” of the author’s mother. The author was trying to make a comparisons between her mother’s “broken english” and the “standard english”. She became aware of this while she was speaking publicly and became conscious of the words she is using. She mentioned how most of the words she have never used in front of her mother. Because of this she started paying more attention to the way her mother speaks english and how others, including herself, have described it as broken english.…
Amy Tan believes that people unconsciously speak different language and society classifies everyone on their longue language, in her short story she talk about the issue her mother had with English . “Mother Tongue “ means one first language and in the story English was not her mother first language. Amy wanted to make a statement that her mother form of English was broken it cane be difficult for people to understand, it have been who she was. Tan was defending her mother honor…
“Aria” by Richard Rodriguez is an essay that shows the readers a part of life that many have never experienced. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood tounderstand English. He faces society while forfeiting his happy home life trying to become a typical English-speaking student. He establishes a connection with the audience through his personal experience as a child. He uses imagery and narration to clarify his opposition to bilingual education .Rodriguez…
Language is an immensely powerful aspect of each individual’s identity and it largely determines and influences how we think and what we think about. As German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”. Though I believe there are definitely other factors that limit or expand one’s “world”, I agree that language strongly influences one’s perspective of the world and overall identity. In her memoir, Lost in Translation, Eva Hoffman addresses this very idea that one’s identity is deeply interconnected with one’s language and when the flow of language is disrupted, changes in one’s identity also occur. Throughout her memoir, Hoffman uses her own experiences to bring across the message that…
Language has the power to connect people to their culture, history, and to other people, but language can also isolate a person and make them feel like an outsider to their own culture and family, or can make them feel foreign in their own tongue. Language can also empower a person in ways that will make him or her feel like they can control his or her own destiny. All of theses ideas are explored in The Language of Discretion by Amy Tan and in From Outside In by Barbara Mellix. Both Tan and Mellix feel like outsiders in the language each one uses, find a danger and excitement in knowledge and learning, and find a way to fit in with their respective languages. Barbara Mellix grew up surrounded by black english while her parents and teachers…
As the essay progresses, Tan learns to accept her mother’s broken english and uses it as inspiration for her writings.…
When I came to the United States, I was educated and spoke English. It was British English; the pronunciation, spellings of some words and some of the grammar were completely different. When I enrolled in middle school, everybody made fun of me; all the students thought I was not smart because I could not communicate with them in American English. However, it was not just hard to communicate with other men, but it was also hard to communicate with women because I am a man. I believe that there is a difference in how individuals communicate; it all depends on a person’s gender and the language he or she grew up speaking.…
Grounded by Language In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan begins her short story by giving the audience prior knowledge that Tan is not a scholar of English and she is not able to give much more than her past knowledge on the English language. She then proceeds to give the readers an idea of how much she is fascinated by language itself and gives it a grading scale from complex english to simple English. Tan presents her short story by giving the readers a recent experience that made her rethink the past, present, and future.…
Tan not only uses language as a literary device but also in a literal sense. After stating the language barrier that occurs in a family that doesn’t use English as a primary language, she expresses her frustration on how it limited her possibilities in life. She says, “Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person’s developing language skills are more influenced by peers. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a larger role in shaping the language of the…