The Power of Language Essay Example
The Power of Language
Nowadays, more and more Chinese migrants, who use English as their second language, live and work in America. We can call them “bilingual” since they can speak both English and their mother tongue--Chinese. However, although many Chinese migrants can talk with others with very fluent English, many native speakers sometimes find it is hard to understand what these Chinese people have said. Some Chinese linguists who are in the union CMAU argue that with the age-old culture, Chinese have already formed their own style of expressing things. And this style may not be changed because it reflects their thoughts which have already formed by their unique culture. However, in Amy Tan’s personal essay “Mother Tongue”, the narrator used her own experience to show how her mother’s simple language influence her and changed her attitude to this Chinese-styled English from negative to positive in an unconscious way, and finally formed her identity of language in study and fiction writing.
This kind of change in language may seem difficult for many people. But Amy Tan is different. To see something about her background, it can be found that although she is an American and received American-styled education, her parents were all born in China and received Chinese-styled education. That makes things different because she had double identities in her life: as a student in school and as the daughter in her family. And she spoke regular English with her classmates and simple English to her mother. Tan’s attitude toward her mother’s language was often negative when she was young. In fact, it is easy for readers to guess which kind of language Amy Tan preferred when she was young because she did not know anything about
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Chinese culture. The narrator shows her attitude to her mother’s language by saying “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say” (28). The narrator then explains that her shame
Nowadays, more and more Chinese migrants, who use English as their second language, live and work in America. We can call them “bilingual” since they can speak both English and their mother tongue--Chinese. However, although many Chinese migrants can talk with others with very fluent English, many native speakers sometimes find it is hard to understand what these Chinese people have said. Some Chinese linguists who are in the union CMAU argue that with the age-old culture, Chinese have already formed their own style of expressing things. And this style may not be changed because it reflects their thoughts which have already formed by their unique culture. However, in Amy Tan’s personal essay “Mother Tongue”, the narrator used her own experience to show how her mother’s simple language influence her and changed her attitude to this Chinese-styled English from negative to positive in an unconscious way, and finally formed her identity of language in study and fiction writing.
This kind of change in language may seem difficult for many people. But Amy Tan is different. To see something about her background, it can be found that although she is an American and received American-styled education, her parents were all born in China and received Chinese-styled education. That makes things different because she had double identities in her life: as a student in school and as the daughter in her family. And she spoke regular English with her classmates and simple English to her mother. Tan’s attitude toward her mother’s language was often negative when she was young. In fact, it is easy for readers to guess which kind of language Amy Tan preferred when she was young because she did not know anything about
Benjie2
Chinese culture. The narrator shows her attitude to her mother’s language by saying “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say” (28). The narrator then explains that her shame