Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary
English 112
14 March 2014
What is Your Tongue? Language is developed to allow people to interact in communities and it allows oneself to create an identity. In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she writes about how her mother’s broken English, and about the extent that it affected her language. She writes this piece in a method that is easy to understand, and she simply expresses her personal opinion: That whenever someone doesn’t speak proper English they are susceptible to criticism and bad treatment. Amy Tan expresses how her mother is treated unfairly by people just because she cannot speak proper English. Throughout this reflection Amy mentions a troubled past, one that too this day the author is seen to struggle with. Many Americans …show more content…
assume that if one cannot communicate properly in English that they are not worthy of proper social status and respect. Language is linked closely to problems with creating a national identity. Language has much more power than we give credit for, and many subconscious impressions we have about people’s intelligence are based on how well one speaks a language.
Amy Tan mother speaks broken English and often times need Amy to translate because her English is too difficult for others to understand.
Her mother often gets treated differently because of her broken English. Ms. Tan writes “My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment to find out about a benign brain tumor…she said, the hospital didn’t apologize when they lost her CAT scan… And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke perfect English-lo and behold-we had assurance the CAT would be found” (Tan 134). They pretend not to understand her mother trouble and as soon as they spoke to Tan they gave her the treatment people deserve. She believes that people demean her intelligence through the stereotype that people who do not speak English as native speakers do are not as intelligent as them. Although she makes a good point that her mother was treat unfairly, I personally do not believe that all people are like that. I grew up in a similar situation in which my dad spoke broken English, and I often had to translate for him. Whenever we had to go somewhere by himself I felt that they always tried to accommodate the fact that he didn’t speak perfect English. Our experiences dealing with language differ greatly, with Ms. Tan’s experience being far more negative and melancholy than one I had been accustomed to. From my experience, people are generally treated the same regardless of what language they speak
best.
Amy Tan is trying to convince people that broken English should be treated with as much respect as proper English, and people should be treated the same. She wrote this piece in a vernacular style English, and put only her opinion in it, so it could pursued both highly qualified people and the common folk that might speak English as well. She express her personal life in this story to draw credibility towards herself. The method through which she wrote this essay gave her a lot of credibility in my eyes. She specifically gave her personal opinion to show that despite her being such a successful writer, she wasn’t always a great writer, and didn’t learn proper English at home. When she spoke with her mother people could understand broken English, but she could also give a speech in completely proper English. Her broken English was more of an in family thing. The overall essay is entirely accurate and, in fact, it is true that is difficult coming from a family that speaks broken English but you learn to adapt to it and understand other broken languages. It’s unfortunate that the stereotype of those who can only speak English in a choppy manner are less intelligent than others continues to prevail in our society, however with a higher awareness brought by people like Ms. Tan we may one day eradicate the disrespect towards people with language troubles.
Work Cited
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Reading and Writing on the Edge. Ed. Deirdre Vinyard. Boston: Pearson, 2014. 130-36. Print.
14 March 2014
What is Your Tongue? Language is developed to allow people to interact in communities and it allows oneself to create an identity. In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she writes about how her mother’s broken English, and about the extent that it affected her language. She writes this piece in a method that is easy to understand, and she simply expresses her personal opinion: That whenever someone doesn’t speak proper English they are susceptible to criticism and bad treatment. Amy Tan expresses how her mother is treated unfairly by people just because she cannot speak proper English. Throughout this reflection Amy mentions a troubled past, one that too this day the author is seen to struggle with. Many Americans …show more content…
assume that if one cannot communicate properly in English that they are not worthy of proper social status and respect. Language is linked closely to problems with creating a national identity. Language has much more power than we give credit for, and many subconscious impressions we have about people’s intelligence are based on how well one speaks a language.
Amy Tan mother speaks broken English and often times need Amy to translate because her English is too difficult for others to understand.
Her mother often gets treated differently because of her broken English. Ms. Tan writes “My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment to find out about a benign brain tumor…she said, the hospital didn’t apologize when they lost her CAT scan… And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke perfect English-lo and behold-we had assurance the CAT would be found” (Tan 134). They pretend not to understand her mother trouble and as soon as they spoke to Tan they gave her the treatment people deserve. She believes that people demean her intelligence through the stereotype that people who do not speak English as native speakers do are not as intelligent as them. Although she makes a good point that her mother was treat unfairly, I personally do not believe that all people are like that. I grew up in a similar situation in which my dad spoke broken English, and I often had to translate for him. Whenever we had to go somewhere by himself I felt that they always tried to accommodate the fact that he didn’t speak perfect English. Our experiences dealing with language differ greatly, with Ms. Tan’s experience being far more negative and melancholy than one I had been accustomed to. From my experience, people are generally treated the same regardless of what language they speak
best.
Amy Tan is trying to convince people that broken English should be treated with as much respect as proper English, and people should be treated the same. She wrote this piece in a vernacular style English, and put only her opinion in it, so it could pursued both highly qualified people and the common folk that might speak English as well. She express her personal life in this story to draw credibility towards herself. The method through which she wrote this essay gave her a lot of credibility in my eyes. She specifically gave her personal opinion to show that despite her being such a successful writer, she wasn’t always a great writer, and didn’t learn proper English at home. When she spoke with her mother people could understand broken English, but she could also give a speech in completely proper English. Her broken English was more of an in family thing. The overall essay is entirely accurate and, in fact, it is true that is difficult coming from a family that speaks broken English but you learn to adapt to it and understand other broken languages. It’s unfortunate that the stereotype of those who can only speak English in a choppy manner are less intelligent than others continues to prevail in our society, however with a higher awareness brought by people like Ms. Tan we may one day eradicate the disrespect towards people with language troubles.
Work Cited
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Reading and Writing on the Edge. Ed. Deirdre Vinyard. Boston: Pearson, 2014. 130-36. Print.