Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis

Amy Tan’s story “Mother Tongue” starts by the affirmation that she is not a scholar of English or literature. She is just a writer and the person who understand the power of language. From Tan’s observations from her daily life, she realizes that there are different types of English that she uses. The first time Tan notices the difference is when she gives a speech on her book “The Joy Luck Club” using academic English, the one that she never uses to talk with her mother. The second time is when Tan talked using “fractured” English unconsciously with her mother when walking down the street. After that, Tan recalls her memories from her early age: the phone call for her mother to the stockbroker, the meeting with a doctor in the hospital for her mother’s CAT scan result to demonstrate her mother’s realization of “limited” English. Then Tan agrees with the idea that language spoken in
the families, especially in immigrant families, has a big role in shaping language as a child: restricted the ability to understand formal English. However, language influence changes Tan’s mind of choosing major: changing from pre-med to English and becoming a freelance writer. Tan has struggles at first but in the end, she feels confident writing her stories for people like her and her mother, who have “limited” English.
The first feeling comes in my mind instantly is the sympathy for Tan because I experienced the same situation as the one Tan went through. Like Amy Tan, I grew up in an immigrant family which English might seem “limited” or “broken” to other people. Fortunately, I had a chance to get in touch with English when I was very young so I can understand what academic English is from schools. On the contrary, my mother has some difficulties in fully expressing her ideas in English. She has long realized her English is not good enough so that she used to have me talk to people on the phone to pretend I was she, like Tan did for her mother. My mother also let me speak for her in the supermarket, the hospital and so on. At first, I felt very awkward and odd because I was prompted most of the time by my mother standing in my back. She was “whispering loudly” in Vietnamese - our native language - so that I had to sign to make her be quiet and then kept talking. Yet I thought back my mother was not as lucky as I was: I could study English early and used it properly in daily life, but she did not have that opportunity. Therefore I still feel happy with my mother’s natural, clear, perfect spoken English and try to help her as much as I can.
The second feeling that I have through Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is the concern about people categorizing other people by the way they speak.
I believe it is totally wrong. For example, when my mother tries to speak English, sometimes she makes mistakes about pronunciation or cannot express her ideas properly and other people seem to look down on her. In Tan’s story, she tells the same situation happened in the hospital: the hospital has lost her mother’s CAT scan and her mother was defied because she did not speak English well until Tan met the doctor. To me, wrong pronouncing or inability to verbalize ideas does not show that a person is unintelligent or lack of education. The intelligence is reflected through the way a person deal with a problem, including all thoughts, passion and imagination. For this reason, in the end of Tan’s story, Tan says: “I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: “So easy to read.” It proves that Tan’s mother is sharp enough to give Tan comments. She is not unintelligent like the way she
talks.
I have opened my eyes to many things after reading Amy Tan’s story. I have learned that I should respect people who cannot speak a language properly and try all my best to help them getting familiar with a new culture. Also, I should learn about other cultures to feel comfortable around new immigrants because United States are becoming more and more diverse. When we understand people, we have a respect for them. Tan respects her mother very much. In Tan’s eyes, her mother is intelligent enough and her mother’s English is “perfectly clear” and “perfectly natural”. So do I to my mother.