Amy Tan Sympathy

The two main rhetorical devices used in Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” are tone and symbolism both of which connect the reader’s emotions to the purpose of the essay. The are multiple tonal shifts throughout “Mother Tongue”. From guilt, to shame, to pride, to many more. One of these

I now speak English and Spanish because I managed to keep my first language. I had bilingual classes up to fifth grade. Because my parents did not speak a word of English, I had to translate for them regularly, which was also a way to practice my English

Amy Tan was born in China on February 19, 1952. She was one of three children to her parents. Amy was born to her mother’s second husband. Later on, her family escaped China on the last boat before the Communist takeover of China in 1949. Her mother left behind three other kids from a previous marriage. Amy finished high school in Switzerland, and fought with her mom the whole time. She went to college at a Baptist college. She then defied her mother by leaving that college and following her boyfriend to San Jose State University. She further defied her mother by abandoning her pre-medical degree for an English and linguistics major. She eventually married her boyfriend, Louis DeMattei, and they moved to San Francisco. Amy Tan started to repair her relationship with her mother, once she was deathly ill and in the hospital. Amy made a promise to take her mom to China to find the children that she left behind. This allowed for Amy to finish her book and get closer to her mother. She went on to write many books and essays after her time with her mother. What caused that dramatic of a change in major for Amy? What caused the rift between her and her mother?

Amy Tan was born in 1952, in Oakland, California to Chinese immigrants John and Daisy Tan. Her family eventually settled in Santa Clara. When Tan was in her early teens, her father and one of her brothers died of brain tumors within months of each other. During this period Tan learned that her mother had been married before, to an abusive husband in China. After divorcing him, her mother fled China during the Communist takeover, leaving three daughters behind who she would not see again for nearly forty years.

In the essay “Mother’s Tongue,” by Amy Tan, she stated,” When I was a teenager, she used to have me call people on the phone and pretend that I was she” (Tan 14). This is demonstrated when Tan's mother English was "broken", she had to rely on her daughter for help when it came to talking on the phone with other people. This is important because based on what she said, her childhood must've been difficult. Furthermore, this influenced many people because it shows that there are families struggling in America. In addition, Tan stated “Fortunately I happened to be rebellious and enjoyed the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me. I became an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med. I started writing nonfiction as a freelancer the week I told my boss at the time that writing was my worst skill... ” (Tan 17). This gives insight that Tan was motivated enough to pursue her dreams by majoring in her English. Knowing her race was being stereotyped at being good at a certain subject Tan was able to break it and pursue something that was out of the norm. Moreover, Tan motivated many American citizens to pursue their passion. To sum up, Tan's life experiences motivated many to break through from obstacles, stereotypes, and to follow their

According to Pew Research Center, nearly 22 percent of 484 thousand Hispanics, ages 5 and older in the U.S., speak English proficiently, compared to 70 percent in Massachusetts.

Introduction - Being a part of a bilingual speaking family, like with my mom and dad who are Chinese immigrants, is an experience that no one can imagine unless you are part of a bilingual speaking family. Experiences such as knowing a language that not many of our neighbors don't know can be frustrating for both sides. Being young in my early years, learning English was not only a struggle for me but for my family. I noticed that my parents struggled learning english and communicating with the outside world. From buying groceries to paying for the bills, I observed the painful experiences that my parents persevere through all these years. I was glad public schools gave me the opportunity to not only learn English but to help my family live in this English superior society.

Each and every person in the world has a different childhood. These years of childhood are usually the most precious in all lives. They are the years that shape and mold who we turn out to be in the future. In the memoir of David Sedaris, Us and Them, he describes his childhood and whom he lived around along with how he felt and thought of the people in his life. While in the literacy narrative of Amy Tan, Mother Tongue, she describes the hardships she faced while growing up and how they shaped who she is today. In this paper, I argue that Sedaris and Tan both had someone in their lives who was considered an outsider to society, each of them wanted to reach out and help improve other people’s lives, but only Tan strived from the experience and was able to help the person while Sedaris just gave up.

However as Amy Tan reflects upon in her essay ‘’Mother Tongue’’, ‘’She used to have me call people on the phone to pretend to I was she.’’(Tan, Tongue) A young Amy would have to translate her mother's broken english whenever an important call would have to be made, or any transaction was needed. Making it very difficult for her family to afford what they needed, along with the overall discrimination.‘’The fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.’’(Tan, Tongue) Not having the ability to communicate as easily as her daughter meant that her options for work were very

In Amy Tan’s story “Mother’s Tongue”, Tan argues that the way people speak the English language is directly taken from how family members have adopted the English language or dialect that they speak. Tan also claims that these “broken or limited” (635) forms of English are taken less seriously and people who speak it are often perceived as less intelligent. Tan encountered many experiences in relation to this theory; her mother would make Tan talk on the phone to customer service, because they would never take her mother seriously and would often be disrespectful because of how she spoke “broken” English. Tan was embarrassed and even ashamed of her mother’s form of English, because she knew her mother’s thoughts were clear, but the way that

As person living with the gift of dual language, Tan’s essay allowed some insight into my own life. She argued that a person’s limitation on language does not reflect their perspective on society or events of the world. The limitation is more of a token than a deficiency, people having these language issues must come up with an exclusive way to portray thoughts and ideas; therefore, enhancing their perceptual knowledge of the world around. Growing up listening to my mother’s English, I have learned to adapt and am able to fully understand her, even though I constantly catch myself trying to correct her. The way she conveys her thoughts and ideas is what makes her unique and who am I to change her by correcting her idiosyncrasies. Although I have become accustomed to my mother’s English there are certain things she says that even

Unlike many interpreters, I am completely bilingual. I did not know the difference between English and Spanish until I was about 5; I just knew that if I wanted to watch TV I had to ask my mother in with one set of words and everyone else in a different manner. I was able to formally develop both languages by attending high school in Buenos Aires and college at UCSD, where I currently study bioengineering. In Argentina, I attended the most prestigious high school in the country, and was instructed not only in advanced Spanish syntax, grammar and literature but also in Latin and French, which has allowed me a quite operative understanding of most Latin based languages, including Italian, Portuguese and French, all of which I am able to read

My mother's native tongue. As a result, I learned Spanish at the same time as I learned English. This came in handy in high school when I took the Spanish classes there because I already knew the basics, but I've had to polish my Spanish a lot. When I go to Peru to visit my mom's family I use Spanish to order food. High school and food aren't how Spanish helps me the most though, like most languages it's meant to be used to communicate. Ever since I was little I've helped my mom. I've always told her random words that she didn't know or what they were saying in movies when she couldn't keep up.

Although the narrator’s parents are keeping him from learning or speaking their native languages, which is what most of his family members speak, in order to stabilize his English proficiency, there are many negative effects of doing so. The narrator constantly feels

learning English for me was a struggle when I got to the United states. because the transition between the two languages is very harsh and for Spanish speakers it makes it much harder. For example Spelling – In Spanish, words are spelled exactly how they sound. They don’t have any