Interpreting The Story 'Mother Tongue' By Amy Tan
In Tthe story “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, a Chinese immigrant of English language writer, starts beingsher essay by with the author stating that while she is not a scholar of English literature, but she is trying to give express her personal opinions about regarding English language and how fascinating the language is for hershe finds the language. In addition, she explains that language is becomes a powerful tool to evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.
Furthermore, she tells the story of her mother’s “broken” or “fractured” English, that she understands everything she says – her Mother’s Tongue, but -although her friends only understand 50 of her mother’s English. She also points out that how her mother’s English
limitation aeffected her life as well by giving example of scoring good high in science and math subjects compared to English.
It had never occurred to Amy that she spoke in different types of English until she gave a talk in connection with her writing, her life and her book. She used proper and faultless English and it occurred to her that she never spoke this type of English with her mother at home. She also realized this “Mother Tongue” tended to carry over into conversations with her husband and also various other family members. Amy found it confusing how her friends could not understand her mother and yet she understood what her mother said and could also carry on a conversation with her in her mother’s preferred type of English.
Incidentally, Amy said that she, like countless other Asian students always do better on math achievement tests and therefore teachers push them toward engineering and medicine. She also found her teachers pushing her to take medical courses before she rebelled and became an English major upon beginning college. Finally, Amy shares the story of how she becaome a writer and how much her mother’s broken English helped her to use all “Englishes” in her writings.
Furthermore, she tells the story of her mother’s “broken” or “fractured” English, that she understands everything she says – her Mother’s Tongue, but -although her friends only understand 50 of her mother’s English. She also points out that how her mother’s English
limitation aeffected her life as well by giving example of scoring good high in science and math subjects compared to English.
It had never occurred to Amy that she spoke in different types of English until she gave a talk in connection with her writing, her life and her book. She used proper and faultless English and it occurred to her that she never spoke this type of English with her mother at home. She also realized this “Mother Tongue” tended to carry over into conversations with her husband and also various other family members. Amy found it confusing how her friends could not understand her mother and yet she understood what her mother said and could also carry on a conversation with her in her mother’s preferred type of English.
Incidentally, Amy said that she, like countless other Asian students always do better on math achievement tests and therefore teachers push them toward engineering and medicine. She also found her teachers pushing her to take medical courses before she rebelled and became an English major upon beginning college. Finally, Amy shares the story of how she becaome a writer and how much her mother’s broken English helped her to use all “Englishes” in her writings.