Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, a famous Asian-American writer whose works focus a lot on mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese American experience. She grew up with a Chinese mother who spoke broken, or limited, English that was difficult for many people to understand. Amy Tan thinks because her mom spoke English differently, this caused Tan to speak English differently too. In her article, she talks about how language has the power to help shape the way people saw things, expressed things, and made sense of the world. Amy Tan talked about how her mother didn't speak English fluently, therefore they had to communicate in a special way just used in the family. Because of her mother’s broken English that other people had a hard time understanding,