Mother Tongue

In Mother tongue, Amy writes how her mother who couldn't speak well Standard English was treated unfairly in the foreign land. In this essay, she mentions some stories related to her childhood experiences which were happened to them. "... I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and in restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her." Amy makes wrathful mood when thinking about what her mother was getting unequally respect by the local people. Furthermore, when her mother had gone to the hospital for a CAT scan, the hospital staff didn't apologize when they had lost her CAT scan. However, different behavior was treated in the same situation. The hospital staff gave apologize to Amy and promised her, who spoke in perfect English.

Although all these difficulty time happened to Amy's mother, she still could survive stubbornly. Amy is so respect and enjoyed her mother's abilities and knowledge. Her mother realized the limitations of her English, so she asks Amy to call people on the phone and pretend to be her. She spent a lot time to improve her broken English speaking. Furthermore, she also has a successful business during her disability of speaking English. "...I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, and the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts." Amy expresses fully respects to her mother's success and that leads to her writing career.

Amy makes some arguments by using ironic writing in this essay. "... other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as "broken" or “limited." "So easy to read." These two statements that she argues is that the judgment to one's ability is not depends on the speaking of foreign languages, but the ability of survive in different situation. Amy's writing career was also built under her mother's tongue - the Broken Language. It might be so incredible to believe and satire to those who balance one's wisdom in speaking of language but it's true that Amy's mother was her writing careers enlighten teacher.