Critical Analysis Of A Second Language By Amy Tan

Improved Essays
Tan was a language lover, she enjoyed writing about things that readers can be able to visualize. She would give speeches about her writing and life. Tan uses two different English’s she uses one on a daily basis and the other one when she is around her mother. Her mother understands some English words, but not many. Tan and her mother’s first language is not English. It was very hard for Tan to become a writer. She received a lot of criticism about her writing. It was also hard for her to write in a language that she didn’t grow up with.
In my summary response essay I am going to write about how I was not a good student during middle school. Being in middle school was a big struggle for me I didn’t understand many things. All my math courses
…show more content…
Math course was never one of the subjects I enjoyed. My whole family is good in math they can make equations in their head and say the answer within second. I was the whole opposite I’ve always needed a calculator in order for me to get an equation right, or write it down on a piece of paper to get the correct answer. My family thought I was not going to make it through middle school because I’d had never been good in math. I was always a C student in that course as much as I’d work hard to be able to get a reasonable grade in my class I’d still end up with a C. Even if they made fun of me at home because I was not a smart child as my other brothers I pushed myself to do …show more content…
We would see each other as sisters not like student and teacher. My teacher had so much patience with me she never gave up on me. Sometimes I’d cry from frustration because I didn’t understand how to do the problems. She motivated me by telling me the good things in my work the good process I had made through time. Over time she made math look easy, and not confusing for me not be able to understand the math concepts. My teacher taught me a much better and easier way for me to get excellent grades in my assignments. She never gave me the answer to the problem she would give me examples on how to do it, and from there I would work on my

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Carol Dweck's Brainology

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There’s a Chinese Proverb that says, “Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get back up again.” I really wish I heard that quote when I thought I was a failure, but really was just being lazy. In Carol Dweck’s article “Brainology” a study is conducted on seventh grade students and their mindsets. Their mindsets were measured and studied for two years. Dweck studied the difference between the fixed mindset and the growth mindset students and how they did in school.…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    My expectations in the past for math class, was for me to do my absolute best that I can. In 5th grade, I was really good at math and I didn’t take the consideration of preparing for 6th grade at Scott M. Brame Middle School. When middle school had started, I expected for myself to do great because I believed I would. Though, there were times that I did struggle due to myself expecting for it to be easy.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the accompanying article, “Learning a Second Language”, the writer, Meg Butler, mentions that students learn a second language through making flash cards and spending hours memorizing verb conjugations. Although children may be able to gain a firmer grasp on second languages before the age of 10, I am not sure that they would be as receptive to the same method of teaching. The article points out that certain schools “like Language Stars capitalize on this window and are able to teach children a new language simply through immersion.” However, these schools educate their students through immersion, rather than one period a day for a semester (with a year in between) in a classroom. From my personal experience in a foreign language classroom,…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After reading Amy Tan’s, “Mother Tongue” and Paule Marshall’s, “From the Poets in the Kitchen” I pondered and formed several opinions and reactions about these two pieces of literature. Both stories compare and contrast in many ways. In Marshall’s story, she explains how listening to her mother and her friend’s in the kitchen throughout her years as a child had blossomed her as a writer and a person. Marshall reveals instances of how this occurred and what effects it had on her mother, her friends, and the people around her. In Tan’s story, she distinctly conveys the idea that we’re all classified by how we speak.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Because I am good at English I am naturally bad at math. My math lessons took a long time to complete so, I felt like I was missing out on fun activities. But, whenever I made a mistake it made me want to try harder. My grade was a B-.…

    • 90 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When I was in eighth grade I learned a valuable lesson, discipline. I learned this lesson by taking math 1 in the eighth grade. I wasn’t in the AIG classes, so I jumped from seventh grade math to ninth grade math. I really liked math because it came easy to me until this year. I struggled so much that year while my classmates were not because they were in the AIG classes.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In my opinion, it is the combination of both the peer group and a person’s family members that affect the way people communicate with one another. Even though I do not come from a multicultural background, I can relate to Tan’s approach of using different dialects depending upon whom she is speaking with at that time. For example, I work at a hotel and diner, the hotel registration is located in the diner. When I am communicating with a guest it is dramatically different than if I were to carry on a conservation with one of the servers whose age ranges from late teens or early twenties.…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Writing About Writing Authors write for different reasons, at times it is to inform the reader on a particular or several subjects, others it is to persuade the reader on a particular opinion. It does not matter which reason the writer is using to convey their opinion, a few things must remain true. The Author must be able to show his conviction, while remaining subjective and must be able to address their subject to their audience.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Growing up math was and I never had a great relationship. Although I graduated high school with a ‘B’ it was a real struggle for me. I was always a visual learner and appreciated aids that perfectly illustrated the point. On the contrary, my math classes where full of lectures and a dry erase board full of numbers and terms I couldn’t really understand. I’ve matured tremendously since high school and am adjusting quickly to the idea of having to take math in order to reach my goals.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Higher level of math is more difficult to understand,overcoming a math problem that you have so much struggle with is sometimes challenging, and we all every so often feel that we haven’t done enough to solve our issues or need other people assistance to be successful in it. Some obstacles that I have overcome and learned from it was through a Math subject. Middle School math was the toughest transition for me,from basic equations to advance equations. It created a barrier between my passion and success. Algebra is an easy lesson to understand but when you have a teacher that does not teach it the right way, it flips everything around.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When I was a little, I was not good at studying at math and I didn’t like to solve math problems. Sometimes, I failed some of my math classes and got bad grades. Thus, my mom always changed math teachers for me because she thought I could get better grades in a different class. However, I didn’t change at all until I went to 7th grade. Fortunately, in 7th grade, I met with the greatest teacher I’ve ever met throughout my years.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lower Level Math Classes

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This became boring and I eventually lost interest. My senior year of high school I was placed in another class, a normal event for me by then, where I came across a very good teacher named Mr. Mike Britton. Mr. Britton was always willing to help me with math. Even though I was not technically in his class, I did use his classroom for my independent studies. He was always willing to teach me, at a slower pace, the math a senior in high school should be taking, like algebra.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To illustrate her experiences Tan gives the readers instances when her mom 's struggle with speech made her life tough and how she had to be the “mom” in one particular instance. Since she grew up around family that does not…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Career In High School

    • 1039 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This involved math in more real world scenarios, except that there was really no notes on what we were supposed to be learning. In fact, most of my classmates and I had no idea what the concept for each unit was. Our teacher tried her best to explain, but really, it didn 't help much of our confusion. That semester, most of our grades were pretty pathetic. Sure, I passed with a B, but was I completely sure of everything I had "learned"?…

    • 1039 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays