Immigrants Language: Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

Improved Essays
Immigrants Language In the essay “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan describes an important realization she had In 1989. Conducting a symposium in San Francisco where she discussed her well-known book “The Joy Luck Club.” This symposium was the first time that her mother was part of her audience. Not until then, Tan realizes that the academic English she is using to address the audience is different than the one she uses with her mother. Tan’s essay describes the exploration of languages and how it can be part of our identity. Tan begins her story by stating, “ I am not a scholar of English or literature” (633). Meaning, she is not a linguistic or literary critic; she can only provide her opinion about language and its variations in this country …show more content…
She explains that her mother does not have difficulties reading the Forbes reports, listening to Wall Street Weekly and communicating with her stockbroker on a daily basis. Adding that her mother reads Shirley McLane’s books easily. Conversely, Tan friends explain that most of the time, when her mother talks to them, they do not understand what she is saying. On the other hand, Tan believes that her mother speaks clear as she can understand what she means without any trouble. Perhaps due to the adaptation Tan has had over the years. She has adjusted in knowing what her mother means even if it sounds verbally incorrect to …show more content…
Tan’s doctor’s office, are not willing to make an effort to understand her. This actions may have repercussions. Tan talks about the time her mother’s doctor lost some CAT scan tests, and because Tan’s mother has lost her husband and son to brain tumors, she is concern and upset of the way treated. With her “Limited” English, she was trying to get the doctor to understand her dilemma. Like many others with the same predicament, Tan’s mother was not getting proper treatment and respect, not until Tan 's mother requested the doctor to call her daughter, who at her arrival was able to communicate in “suitable” English her mother 's request. In another occasion, as Tan recalls, she had to call her mother’s brokers and pretend to be her. This as Tan explains was a less drastically example of the need for patients and willing to make an effort to understand those individuals who speak with an accent. As Tan points out, her mother goes direct to the point, a practice not well received in our

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Both Tan and Anzaldua go into depth about about their ethnic backgrounds while incorporating their language. Anzaldua and Tan, facing language difficulties, learned that in order to overcome these challenges, they needed to incorporate their families. The changes they would make not only affected themselves, but also their families. When living with a family who speaks “fractured English”, they faced hardships and challenges on a daily basis. Anzaldua’s…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The reader can come away with a newfound respect for where, what, and who they came from. Tan shares another message, that of love of family and tradition. It was Tan's family, especially her mother, who helped her to appreciate her heritage. Although her family and their traditions embarrassed her greatly, she came to love and appreciate them. Culture and tradition bring family together.…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It gave her uncomfortable feelings and forced her to blush if her mother was speaking. Only when she got older she realized her own mistake – judging by the way the person talks, instead of the way he or she thinks. It made Amy Tan perceive that her own “perfect English”, which she used to implement in her early writing, does not stand a chance and that it is boring and useless. She decided to write in the simple, the “most full” language, so people like her mother would understand it. Her mother and her “broken English” created the writer with a unique style of presentation.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lacking Cultural Competency In the book Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies written, by Seth Holmes who has a PHD in anthropology, he writes about Triqui migrants, and how they migrate up and down the west coast of the United States. Risking their lives crossing the borders to work in US, therefore they face various obstacles and, being morbidity situations. The way the migrants are being treated in the hospitals and clinics is unreasonable the healthcare workers both in the US and Mexico lack ' ' cultural competency ' '. In the Inter professional Care Betancourt defines, Cultural competency ‘’as set of behaviors and attitudes and a culture within business or operation of system that respects and takes into account the person’s cultural background,…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Assignment 7-1 Analysis

    • 1610 Words
    • 7 Pages

    "I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and in 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 quote gives the exact example that Tan explained about her mothers English in public places and how it made her…

    • 1610 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout the story Tan structures her writing by presenting a conflict between the mother and daughter in the story, delivering the message of what a parent-to-kid relationship is like using first person narration. Tan uses her language in the story to engage the readers by creating conflicts. In addition she characterizes the protagonist as someone who thinks she is not good at anything because she is who she is. Automatically the language in the story is set to negativity.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As the essay progresses, Tan learns to accept her mother’s broken english and uses it as inspiration for her writings.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Amy Tan Comparison

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages

    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…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    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…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Another illustration was that she could not do well in English test due to the effects of "Mother Tongue" on "limiting" her "possibilities". Tan realizes that her mother 's English affected her growth and "possibilities in life". Lastly, Tan thought about all about her mother 's English by recalling anecdotes of "few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing", the early writing experience when envisioning her mother as a reader, and integrated competence of all the English she grew up with. All in all, these anecdotes provide credibility of the influences of her mother 's English on Tan 's growth, writing, thinking, and perception, evoking the greatest emotional connection with audience. In addition, they can be easily memorized because of fascinating…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Tan speaks about the different forms of english she uses through anecdotes of her experiences with her mother. According to essay, a survey showed that Asian students did much better on math achievement tests rather than english.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tan explains in her essay, “The Language of Discretion”, how these misunderstandings and stereotypes affect her life. On the other hand, Mellix goes through the struggles of learning a new dialect of her already spoken language. She worries about her life if she keeps speaking Black English. In the end she wants to make something out of herself. In “From Outside, In”.…

    • 1504 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    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…

    • 1234 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays