Preview

Reader Response To Amy Tan's 'Mother Tongue'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
323 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Reader Response To Amy Tan's 'Mother Tongue'
Reader Response 1: Mother Tongue by Amy Tan
Discusses the way she and her mother use English to communicate. Give specific examples from the reading to explain their interactions in English.
The main purpose of this paper is to focus on the linguistic differences and the challenges of cultural translation as a barrier, on the other hand the power of storytelling as a bridge.
Amy Tan wants to let the reader know that languages influence our lives. Tan discuses in the story the difference between the language she uses at home with her mother and her family, and the language she uses in her books, and her speeches. She studied very hard to excel at English throughout school. The love for language allowed Amy Tan to embrace the variations of English
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

    The essay “Mother Tongue” describes a writer who grew up with a mother of Asian origin and the limitations created by her mother’s speech. The author, Amy Tan, defines her mother’s English as “broken” and that it created communication barriers. For example, when Tan’s mother would need to call her boss about work, she would rely on her daughter to make the phone call and use proper english. When Tan decided to go into English in college, it seemed foolish since she was more skilled in math and science. The author also mentions how not everyone’s speech is the same, but that is not a bad thing. Tan decided to start writing fiction, and write a book in a way her mother would comprehend. Though the writing was harshly critiqued, Tan knew she…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What Is The Main Idea Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page

    What Is The Main Idea Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

    Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” Tan grew up in a home with her Chinese mother who spoke English that she considered “broken”. It was difficult for others to understand what her mother was saying. Tan then realized that when she was with her mother that she spoke English differently than she did. She was trying to figure out how her background affected her life, such as her education; but she eventually learned to except her background. At the same time Tan wanted to become a writer and she found that by spending time with her mother who again spoke “broken” English. Even though she was told that writing was her worst skill by her boss, she was determined to make it work.…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unit 1 Essay
    • 281 Words
    • 1 Page

    Unit 1 Essay

    When Julie hears her parents talk in English it upsets he, the reasoning being is that her parents would talk in English just so that she wouldn’t understand what their saying which made her angry and anxious by the look on their face. Which made her want to learn English. She was trying to express that there are many ways for people to motivate themselves is through hard life expirnces. She went to a school that her just enrolled in the Dominican Republic called the Carol Morgan School which helped her many ways including the American customs. For Julie English would it was embarrassing when all the kids in her new school would laugh at her all the time. What she is also trying to say is, imagine yourself learning a Chinese or French for example, and you made a mistake or a grammatical error, how would you feel?…

    • 281 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Se Habla Espanol
    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Se Habla Espanol

    2. The anecdote at the beginning of the text has the effect of showing the point of view of the conflict that Barrientos has in learning her native language; which caught my attention in wanting to know why she would degrade her own native language.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" and Gloria Anzuldua's "How To Tame A Wild Tongue"
    • 733 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Comparing Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" and Gloria Anzuldua's "How To Tame A Wild Tongue"

    Living with parent that speaks "broken English" is similar in all households and presents similar hardships. In _Mother Tongue_, Amy Tan mainly focuses on the hardships of adapting to American culture. Tan also avoids to being in situations where her mother tries to express herself. Amy is "red-faced and quit" while her mother "was shouting at [the…

    • 733 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Language In The Woman Warrior
    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Language In The Woman Warrior

    Throughout our lives we communicate to a vast array of people on a daily basis from teachers to friends to family. Each time we speak to these individuals there tends to be a different “slang” that is used with each yet at the same time still portraying the same message. In groups of different cultures they have a similar voice through language. Even though the languages they speak are different the meanings can be the same. Through this everyone has the ability to show love, anger, sadness, and the ability to teach right from wrong. Two authors from different ethnic backgrounds show how language affects them personally and the ones around them. Kingston, a Chinese author, writes about stories based on the things she heard from her mother and…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Taming A Wild Tongue Summary
    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Taming A Wild Tongue Summary

    Amy Tan discusses the different “Englishes” she uses depending on the situations she is in. For instance she uses “broken” or “limited” English when she talks to her mother or sometimes to her husband. On the contrary she uses proper English when she is giving a speech to a crowd. She mentions the importance of the words in the article by saying, “power of language -- the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    amy tan
    • 703 Words
    • 2 Pages

    amy tan

    In this article, Amy Tan shares her personal encounters growing up with a mother who spoke imperfect English. She examines the diverse forms of English that she uses in her daily life. Tan grew up with many variations of English including her mother's “broken English” which was seen as limited and fractured. However, Tan sees her mother's language as vibrant and easy to understand through her mother’s sense of detail and imagery. Tan began to write fiction towards a target audience who would read her stories and decided to write with her mother in mind. When her mother read her stories and thought they were "So easy to read", Tan knew she had accomplished something very important. Ultimately, she concluded that no one should ever be evaluated on their intellect based on how properly they speak a language.…

    • 703 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rogerian Essay
    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rogerian Essay

    Throughout the essay, Tan includes several of her past experiences allowing the reader to sympathize for Amy and what she had to go through with her mother and the forces that shaped her life and her relationship with her mother. By appealing to pathos and empathy as humans, she creates a connection between the events that happen in her life as well as the readers of her essay. In one of her past experiences, Tan says, “She said she had spoken very good English… no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing.” and through this excerpt readers relate the fact of the mother not originating from America and her English to the reason of why people treat her the way they do. Even…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Bonesetter's Daughter, And Saving Fish Form Drowning
    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Bonesetter's Daughter, And Saving Fish Form Drowning

    While at home, Tan speaks to her mother in a “broken” sort of choppy English that she can understand. When she is talking to people she works with or deals with on a more business-oriented basis, she uses clearly spoken, grammatically correct, standard English. It was not until giving a speech in a room that her mother was a part of that she finally realized how different her two forms of English really…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis
    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis

    I was growing up, my mothers limited English limited my perception of her" (Tan, pg#70). As…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Amy Tan essay
    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Amy Tan essay

    Moreover, Tan is in this situation in which she is thinking and analyzing the different Englishes she tends to use throughout her life. As she was raised by her mother who as she explained would refer to her speaking as “broken’ or ‘fractured’ English” (Tan, 713). Meaning that she is trying to explain to her peers to a point where they understand how her mother speaks. In which appears to be the fact that they are stereotyping her, along with others who don’t speak different English to a point where it seems disrespectful. Tan feels the need to expand on this idea of disrespectfulness as she reaches her purpose in telling her mother’s stories about when she was not treated as she should be and it took Amy to actually come help her in order to get what she needed. It conveys the idea also that she is trying to tell English speakers as a whole to not give people like her mother more respect then she has because just because her English is not perfect doesn’t mean she is limited to things that fluent English speakers are.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis
    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis

    I have read through two articles and I have my own thought about them. The two articles author, Amy Tan (Mother Tongue) and Gloria Anzaldua (How to Tame…) both discussed the topic about the language and life. They have many common points such as they all born in a bilingual family, and it brought a great change in their lives. The difference is two articles have different focus. “Mother Tongue” Focus more on the change what the bilingual family culture has brought to her, in other words, how this change her life. Amy Tan uses a neutral tongue in the article simply just to how the change take place. “How to Tame a Wild…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    essat
    • 914 Words
    • 3 Pages

    essat

    The literacy narrative, “Mother Tongue”, by Amy Tan, is about the different kinds of Englishes which exist in Tan’s world and how she went against the grain to become a successful writer using the same kinds of Englishes she once despised. Tan recounts how she coped with communicating in a simplistic manner of English with her not so fluent mother, then on the other hand, learning to develop and hone her English skills in school. As a teen, Tan, under the orders of her mother, pretended to be her own mother on the phone because few people were able to understand what little English her mother was able to speak. Her belief that growing up with the broken English her mother used was a detriment to achieving high test scores on her English exams. However, Tan challenged herself by forgoing the stereotypical route of science and math expected in Asians and became an English major. Working through several drafts of her first major project, Tan was able to construct her breakthrough novel The Joy Luck Club with the help of her mother and the different kinds of Englishes she grew up with.…

    • 914 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    mother tongue
    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages

    mother tongue

    In the book, “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan asserts that language is a tool of communication.…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More