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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

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In Amy Tan's article Mother Tongue, I found a familiar situation. I usually am around family and friends that speak Spanish firstly or only Spanish. I find myself sometimes resorting to the use of Spanglish—a mixture of Spanish and English—to explain things where I have forgotten words in Spanish. At the end of such conversations, I often realize that it would be easier if I use regular language instead of trying to “sound smart” using more sophisticated language. The article focuses on Tan's interpretation of her mother's "broken" English. Being Chinese-American, Tan writes on how she incorporates this "broken" English into her habitual writing after she realized she was giving a speech using "big" or elaborated words that her mother, who was in the audience, probably didn't understand. Tan further explains that the "brokenness" of her mother's English has everything to do with English not being her native language and nothing to do with ignorance. When Tan expresses this thought, …show more content…

Usually, in the US, it is the result of immigration. While I agree that an effort should be made to comprehend or be fluent in the language of the country you're in, the fact that a person is not fluent doesn't mean that person is completely ignorant. Furthermore, I believe that being bilingual and/or speaking "broken" anything may be an asset for you, as the person trying to discriminate against you or trying to deny you a service may not even possess half of the ability of speech you have in both languages. Also, changing the way you write, especially when it’s your livelihood is something drastic to do but it may be something Tan may have needed to do to improve herself as an author. I do it sometimes but its only when I am trying to help somebody understand something I'm trying to say. Also, the way Puerto Rican Spanish is set up, I speak mostly Spanglish. I am always mixing the two languages together in some way, shape or

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