Mother Tongue Essay

Author Amy Tan, having grown up with a mother who did not have English as her first language, has experienced a very different set of circumstances than an average English-speaking household when it comes to communicating. In her article, “Mother Tongue,” she dives into her past, sharing the language struggles she saw her mother encounter, along with her own battles with finding her literary voice. What she found in the end was that we all, regardless of native tongue, use many levels to our…

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is a story about the different ways to speak English she used to communicate with different people throughout her childhood. I agree with her that our intelligence is judged by the way we speak. Tan described that the language she was taught in her family by her mother’s tongue has affected her English greatly. As a child, she often felt ashamed when she observed that her mother was disrespected by bank services, department stores and restaurants. Many formal English…

In the short story Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, the author says that because of her mother’s imperfect English skills, the “people in department stores, banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted…

authors of two unique essays - "Only Daughter" and "Mother Tongue" - with the similar theme, are sharing their experiences and thought processes regarding that question. They have something in common – both women immigrated to the United States with their families and both decided to major in English to become writers. However, these are the only few similarities that authors have. Everything else is different and almost antithetical – mother that had her own “broken” English for Amy Tan and…

In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan discusses a recent discovery about the variations of the English language she has experienced. Throughout, she compares the English she uses when speaking with her mother to the English she had acquired in school. As a result, Tan describes her ability to shift from one dialect to the other. While Tan states that she does not often detect the differences while speaking, she has become aware of them in recent years. Her recollection of her childhood perception of the…

that we all live in the same country, but we all differ in the language we speak and our culture. Text such as The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, “Studying Islam” by Peter Berkowitz and Michael McFaul, and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, explore the idea that language and culture shape and give individuals their identity. No two…

“Parents”, and the two stories “Mother Tongue” and , the parents often struggle to learn the english language.…

a) In the late 1960s, Singapore government introduced a bilingual education policy. Mother Tongue languages such as Mandarin, Malay and Tamil are known to be the students’ second language in Singapore. It is mandatory for each student to take up at least one second language. However according to an online news "Much Ado About Mother Tongue", students have not been coping well with their Mother Tongue language over the past years. Instead, the students are excelling in other subjects such as…

other open settings. In these cases, a large number of the people whose first language is not English are judged on the grounds that they experience difficulty speaking with the individuals who communicate in English. In Amy Tan’s article, “The Mother Tongue”, she wrote how being bilingual can affect the individuals. Richard Rodriguez wrote “Aria A Memoir of a Bilingual…

topic of ankyloglossia, commonly referred to as tongue tie, is of concern because of its characteristic that restricts the tongue’s natural movement which causes a number of problems, possibly including speech disorders. It raises the question of whether or not ankyloglossia does cause speech disorders, and what can be done to improve speech for those with it. There is significant debate about articulation errors with regards to if they are caused by tongue restriction in individuals with…