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
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After reading the narrative “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. It can be said that it is an engaging 1st person narrative where the author utilized some of her different memories to connect with the audience. At times explaining her feelings of sadness and embarrassment to strengthen her points. Thus‚ creating an emotional piece that had me connected with every sentence. I experienced a sense of empathy. The narrative started at the present time with a memory where the writer found herself speaking to a
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From the article “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan‚ I realize that language nowadays is very important because it is the only way to communicate with many other people. We born in many different places and learn many different language since born. She is telling us that she is Chinese and majoring in English language‚ but most of Chinese people tends to learn engineering or math related major. She also feel that she is better in math and science than English‚ but she enjoy challenges and choose the opposite
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In the essay ‘Mother Tongue’ (Tan 1990) it is portrayed that Amy Tan is an Asian American writer. She comes from a cultural background where English is not the main language spoken. This reflected her upbringing as she was raised in a country where English was the first language. This experience reflected her relationship within the language and her daily life. Amy Tan perceives language as ‘’The way it can evoke an emotion‚ a visual image‚ a complex ideal or a simple truth.’’ (Tan‚ 1990‚ pg.1) This
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Mother tongue instruction Language is used by all as a means of learning‚ communicating and understanding. As a teacher‚ one would do their best to accommodate their learners‚ even if this means to teach in a language that would be best suited to them. As a rainbow nation with eleven official languages‚ South Africa’s diverse cultures are known throughout the world. Many of the inhabitants are either bilingual or multilingual which may pose problems when it comes to education. The preferred language
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comfortable even with the language barrier. Learning English or even a new language‚ I found it challenging because it appears there was always more than one answer while also wary of following the correct grammatical format. For Amy Tan‚ the author of Mother Tongue‚ she too confronts with difficulties in understanding the English language. Tan is convinced of this fact through her standardized test scores on the achievement test‚ IQ tests‚ and her SAT. She found that on
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“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan‚ a famous Asian-American writer whose works focus a lot on mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese American experience. She grew up with a Chinese mother who spoke broken‚ or limited‚ English that was difficult for many people to understand. Amy Tan thinks because her mom spoke English differently‚ this caused Tan to speak English differently too. In her article‚ she talks about how language has the power to help shape the way people saw things‚ expressed things‚
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Amy Tan’s excerpt Mother Tongue focuses on her use of different Englishes when she was surrounded by different people. When surrounded by strangers‚ Tan spoke fluently in grammatically sophisticated English. However‚ Tan referred to the English she used with her mother as being a broken down‚ limited version of the English language. Despite this description‚ Tan didn’t entirely agree with what these chosen adjectives suggested about her mother’s English & intelligence. Tan’s description of the different
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In the article Tan shares how growing up with a mother who speaks very little English has shaped her life. Tan explains how she uses different Englishes when talking with different people. She makes her argument for the power of different Englishes by showing examples from her life and how the different ways the people close to her spoke influenced her life. Tan’s position is that she loves language and how it is used to impact people’s lives or change the way they think. Tan was determined to become
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identify certain groups of people‚ but what happens whenever a certain group’s language doesn’t meet the “standards” of the usual American way of using language? Many problems arise. The authors‚ Amy Tan‚ who wrote “Mother Tongue”‚ Gloria Anzaldua‚ who wrote “How to Tame a Wild tongue”‚ and David Sedaris‚ who wrote “Me talk pretty one day”‚ all support a common argument that shows the linkage of identity and language. Because language is both part of identity and used to convey identity‚ ridiculing
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