Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary

While reading Tan’s essay I immediately started to see a connection between us. One area in which I started to realize how Tan and me had a close connection was when she stated, “While my English skills were never judged as poor,

Not all people whose English as a second language speak it in the same way. This argument made by Amy Tan in her story, “Mother Tongue”. In this essay, she successfully uses all three of Aristotle’s rhetorical styles such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Tan also notably balances each part of the rhetorical triangle and ultimately led to creating a very effective and thought provoking essay.

    Tan uses connotative diction to develop her attitudes towards her mother. As a child, Tan was “ashamed” of her mother’s English. But as she grew, she came to the realization that she, in fact, uses the same English her own mother uses. Her relationship with her mother strained due to the boundaries of language. Tan’s mother’s “broken” English causes tension and resentment from daughter to mother. Tan’s “regrettable” experiences, helping her mother with phone calls and appointments, led her to have a negative attitude towards her mother at an early age. As Tan grew up she realized the injustices found in the world, especially those directed at “broken” English. Her perception of her mother changes as she ages. When she is older, she is “conscious”  of the struggles her mother faces. She exudes all respect to her mother, for her mother’s English was the most familiar “rhythm” she has ever come to know.

The quote “so easy to read” stood out to me the most. Communication is always the function of one language. What Tan’s mother express is

Going through daily life being overlooked or misunderstood due to a language barrier is no small feat. Amy Tan wrote “Mother’s Tongue” to explain life growing up with a mother who’s second language was English. She discusses the difficulties she had in school, that her mother had faced with communication, and how she began her writing career. Tan developed a writing style that incorporated everything her mother had taught her to make a style that would be enjoyable for all readers.

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan describes how her mother’s English impacted her views of the world as she was growing up, which made her experiences more valuable. With Chinese parents growing up in America, Tan noticed some issues her mother came upon with the English language, such as how society assumes that language and intelligence are equivalent of one another. Describing her mother’s English, she explains the struggles of others compared to herself as “Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue...vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery...that helped the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the

To begin, Tan’s lede easily grabs the reader's attention. “I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others” (350). She talks about herself not being a professional in literature, making the reader want to know more about her topic. Even if her short stories are about her, she doesn't only talk about herself. She includes her mother and her mother's thoughts, allowing the reader to know what is happening.

Critically acclaimed author, Amy Tan, in her essay “Mother Tongue”, considers cultural standards and preconceived notions propagated by society in the terms of language. Tan explores the perceptions behind those who speak in ‘broken English’ and the validity of all forms of self-expression by revisiting past experiences in her own life with her mother. She adopts a sincere and emotional tone in order to expose audiences to the discrimination many immigrants face in society on a continual basis. Ultimately, through the use of devices such as definition, comparison and contrast, and her masterful command of language; Tan expresses her central claim that all of her ‘englishes’ are deserving of recognition and respect.

People speak different languages to communicate with one another. Sometimes, the way people speak these languages has an impact on the way they are perceived by others. Author Amy Tan emphasizes this in her article “Mother Tongue,” as she describes the English her mother uses and how she was treated because of it.

This strong exchange is large basis for argument of the misinterpreted attempts of each character. Tan herself is only trying to be do her best as her mother wants, even though her mother thinks that she is not trying as much as she really can.

Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue” focuses primarily on her awareness and relationship with all of the different forms of English that she grew up with. She explains that while giving a speech to a large group of people, there was a specific factor that was distorting her focus. Although she has given this speech to a large audience before, she realizes that the offsetting factor was indeed the fact that her mother was present in the crowd. Tan becomes completely aware of how differently she speaks based on who she is speaking to and who is around to hear her. Despite the fact that Tan’s mother does not speak proper English, it is clear that she undoubtedly comprehends what she is reading or listening to. Because Tan grew up listening to her

Re-reading Amy Tan's, "Mother Tongue", my conclusion has stayed the same. Amy Tan's goal(s) for me has stayed the same too. The article clearly shows their language differences from Amy's descriptions. Mother Tongue language barrier claims the struggles of being an immigrant having English as a second language. I assume that the author's goal could be to exploit other's prejudices (or some people might say "racism") in the US.

I enjoyed reading “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. Tan states, “I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes”. This quote resonated with me because my grandma’s English is different from my English. My grandma came from Mexico and learned how to speak English. However, English was my native language. As a result, our English sounds different when we speak it. Just like Tan and her mother, when I speak English to my grandma it is more of a “broken English”. In other words, my English is not the same as if I were to be speaking to a professor. I tend to speak this way to my grandma because it is how we connect with one another. Tan also states, “that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families… plays a large role.” Reading

In her article “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan maintains that the inability to speak the “correct” English does not reflect intelligence; however most people believe it does. Tan’s mother experience shows how society treats a non-fluent English speaker. Tan, a daughter of a Chinese immigrant family who fled China’s Cultural Revolution, used to go with her mother to stores and banks; Tan admits. “ I was ashamed of her English” (78); people ignored Tan’s mother because “the way she expressed her thoughts were imperfect” because of her “limited” English (78). As a consequence, Tan “tried to distance herself from her ethnicity” (76). How can a person think of such a thing? Simple answer: because if you don't speak English, you are not intelligent; this

No matter where one goes, they will most likely encounter someone who may not be fluent in English. We try to understand, but sometimes, we forget to take them seriously. But could their words have a deeper meaning to them? Amy Tan is a Chinese American writer, whose works delve into mother-daughter relationships. She was raised in California, by immigrant parents from China. This text is based on her experiences with her mother, and how Amy is impacted by her mother's English. In “Mother Tongue”, by Amy Tan, the author targets anyone who has experienced simple English, by using anecdotes and pathos to demonstrate the influence that immigrant parents have on their kids. Ultimately, Tan aims to convey that culture can have an impact on how one learns and uses language.