Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary
Amy Tan's excerpt Mother Tongue focuses on her use of different Englishes when she was surrounded by different people. When surrounded by strangers, Tan spoke fluently in grammatically sophisticated English. However, Tan referred to the English she used with her mother as being a broken down, limited version of the English language. Despite this description, Tan didn't entirely agree with what these chosen adjectives suggested about her mother's English & intelligence. Tan's description of the different kinds of Englishes she found herself using reminded me of my own varied English use. Though my family is not fluent in a foreign language, my roots & heritage lie down south towards the border. Here we have a very country, slang-filled English
that I find myself engaging in whenever I'm surrounded by my extended family down in Louisiana. For example, down south members of my family constantly use terms such as y'all and ain't. This southern way of speaking isn't correct in proper English & some believe speaking this way suggests the speaker is of lower intelligence. It's because of this reason that whenever I am not surrounded by my extended family, but rather by strangers, I find myself speaking a much more proper, sophisticated version of English. I don't break my sentences down with the use of slang & I attempt to avoid from the diction I use whenever I'm surrounded by my loved ones. It's because of this I can relate to Tan's experiences using different kinds of Englishes because I participate in the same thing as well. While I didn't learn anything new in this particular piece of writing, I was reaffirmed a fact I already did know; a person's way of speaking a certain language doesn't indicate their intelligence levels whatsoever. Someone whose first language isn't English may sound a tad bit choppy to fluent speakers, but that doesn't automatically mean they're unintelligent as they can perfectly convey what they want to say in their language. Tan's excerpt reveals this message to her readers while also involuntarily reminding me of my similar roots.
that I find myself engaging in whenever I'm surrounded by my extended family down in Louisiana. For example, down south members of my family constantly use terms such as y'all and ain't. This southern way of speaking isn't correct in proper English & some believe speaking this way suggests the speaker is of lower intelligence. It's because of this reason that whenever I am not surrounded by my extended family, but rather by strangers, I find myself speaking a much more proper, sophisticated version of English. I don't break my sentences down with the use of slang & I attempt to avoid from the diction I use whenever I'm surrounded by my loved ones. It's because of this I can relate to Tan's experiences using different kinds of Englishes because I participate in the same thing as well. While I didn't learn anything new in this particular piece of writing, I was reaffirmed a fact I already did know; a person's way of speaking a certain language doesn't indicate their intelligence levels whatsoever. Someone whose first language isn't English may sound a tad bit choppy to fluent speakers, but that doesn't automatically mean they're unintelligent as they can perfectly convey what they want to say in their language. Tan's excerpt reveals this message to her readers while also involuntarily reminding me of my similar roots.