Amy Tan's Mother Tongue and Jimmy Santiago Baca's Coming Into Language

There are both positive and negative aspects of learning a language, but people are likely to equalize two sides and try not to lose the relationships with their family and the society. Amy Tan, in “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez in “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” explain how they viewed their private and public languages through their experiences and how they managed these two languages and established themselves in the society. Tan initially felt ashamed of her private language and favored the public language; however, in the end she showed that she could manage the balance between the languages and finally utilized both in public. On the other hand, Rodriguez preferred his private language which made him feel comfortable;

In the examining and writing my analysis of the article Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, I hope to appeal to an audience that wishes to expand their knowledge of the cultural use of various languages and their social impacts. In this case, the language would be English and the culture would be that of Asian-Americans. I would think that this work, and the analysis of, would primarily be of interest to those in academic or research fields of sociology and language. I would hope the reader of my analysis would be interested in gaining insight into how using a “broken” English system heavily influences one’s communication and feeling towards those outside of your culture. The analysis would benefit the reader by

A typical childhood consists of a child having two parents; a mother and a father, or two fathers, or two mothers, whatever the situations maybe. My childhood wasn’t typical, my childhood consist of one single parent, my mother, with the occasional glimpse of my father, but that was rare. My mother played a significant role in my education and how I communicate with others. You see my mother immigrant from Cuba to America and was unable to speak a word of english but she came anyway with her Heart open and her mind ready to learn. Thanks to reruns of ‘ I Love Lucy’ and Oprah; my mother was able to learn english but it was “broken” as Amy Tan would put it. Amy Tan’s essay “ Mother Tongue” discusses the many difficulties that she and her mother have face with her mother's “broken” english; which seem all to similar to my mother and me. It was like we were one in the same. Tan points out the prejudices and culture racism that immigrants are forced to endure without showing aggression or even acknowledging the reader of it. Tan is able to criticize our culture standards and expresses how we have double standards for English speakers.

In Amy Tan’s famous speech “Mother Tongue”, mainly describes the struggle about her and her mother as a foreign immigrant in America. She points out the differences and conflicts between these two different cultures throughout the speech. Tan virtually informs the reader that life in America can be tough if you can’t speak the good English. However, the story mainly focuses on the prejudices of Amy Tan and her mother. Her mother has been discriminated throughout her whole life because of the fact that she speaks the “broken”, “limited” or also known as the “fractured” English. Tan describes her struggle of growing up with her mother’s “limited English”, but eventually embrace the beauty of it. The author’s main purpose is to show the audience that the “standard English” is not the only proper way to communicate with each other, that “broken English” can also be an important tool to express our thoughts and emotions.

Tan begins by talking about how she hated her mother’s limited English. While Tan was growing up, Tan expressed that her “mother’s ‘“limited’” English limited [her] perception of her” (2) and that she was “ashamed of her English” (2). This gives us the fact that Tan was not really comfortable with how her mother spoke to others because her mother’s limited English didn’t make sense to those who spoke English fluently. Tan gives the readers an example of her mother’s native tongue when Tan needed to pretend to be her mother on the phone to call her mother’s stockbroker by mentioning “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So made he lie to me, losing me money” (2). This showcases Tan’s frustration towards her mother’s English because it was too broken for others to understand. However, when Tan grows up, she realizes the importance of her mother’ language through her reflection of childhood by saying “language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families… plays a large role in shaping the language of the

Tan says, “Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use (633).” Tan speaks the same language in many ways. She grew up having to speak formal English at school, and a “broken” English at home. Tan’s mother spoke broken English and she felt as if it hindered her. She says “I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well (636).”

Tan’s purpose of her text is to let people know that there are different kinds of English and there is no right type of English. For example, she uses the word “simple English” to describe the kind of English she uses to spoke to her mother. “Broken English” for the type of English her mother uses whenever she spoke to her. “Watered down English” to describe her translation of her mother’s Chinese. According to Tan, due to these different kinds of English, there are people who are very narrow-minded who cannot understand that there is no right type of English. These narrow-minded people fail to understand that everybody has different culture and language background. In fact, she uses her experience and her mother’s personal experience

The Essay written by Amy Tan titled 'Mother Tongue' concludes with her saying, 'I knew I had succeeded where I counted when my mother finished my book and gave her understandable verdict' (39). The essay focuses on the prejudices of Amy and her mother. All her life, Amy's mother has been looked down upon due to the fact that she did not speak proper English. Amy defends her mother's 'Broken' English by the fact that she is Chinese and that the 'Simple' English spoken in her family 'Has become a language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk' (36). Little did she know that she was actually speaking more than one type of English. Amy Tan was successful in providing resourceful

Throughout Tan’s life, her mother would always speak English that normally sounds abstruse. For instance, Amy Tan’s mother spoke English like so “Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off-the-street kind”(Tan 490). While this type of English is, in fact, difficult to comprehend, it carried over to the style that Tan speaks. With the thoughts of her mother’s English, Tan started to feel “ashamed of her English”(Tan 491). Even with these strong emotions, she started to develop these strong habits that she gained from her mother. One moment like “Not waste money like that”(Tan 490) showed that Tan develops some habits that she picked up around her mother. Like mother and daughter, her English has become similar to that of her mother’s English. While it may

Amy Tan, a Chinese American novelist with a degree in linguistics , in her essay “Mother Tongue” (1990), argues that one’s command over a language is not representative of the quality of their ideas or their intelligence. She supports the claims by first emphasizing her understanding of the issue as a woman educated in America whose mother is Chinese, then implying that she has been concerned with this issue for most of her life through descriptions of how her perspective of her mother’s language style has changed from adolescence to adulthood, and finally providing multiple personal accounts of experiencing language barriers with her mother. Tan’s purpose is to prove how the way a person speaks creates bias that individual regardless of what

How does our English alter our social interactions? For Tan, this question was a statement of her entire life. Living in America does not necessarily mean everyone speaks the primary language, English, and that causes conflicts in many environments. "Mother Tongue" gives an example of what it is like to struggle with fragmented English in a place where your looks and voice are judged heavily by others. Tan knew from an early age that she would have to battle the social identity put on herself and her mother. She confirms through imagery, precise details, and simplicity in syntax, that a person's English always has an interesting story behind it.

Before the group discussion, I believed that the statement “And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with” (Tan, 1), was significant because it shows the reader how important the dialect of Amy Tan’s mother is to her. Additionally, this statement brings to light her diverse background in a variety of English dialects; making her opinion seem more valid. It also shows the reader how the dialects we listen to everyday change the way we think and speak in the future. This belief is proven by Tan when she says, “But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a role in shaping the language of the child (P4). On top of that, my personal experiences prove Tan’s point; in

Tan describes her love towards the power of language and the abundance of “Englishes” she grew up to know. She begins to write fiction, but realizes her intention to master the English language fails. Once she realizes she writes for the wrong audiences, her envision changes: “Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: ‘So easy to read’” (Tan, p. 320). Tan thought her career involved writing fiction to intelligent audiences, but she struggles with communicating with them.

Tan divides she English into the English she speaks with those close to her — her mother and her husband— and her English towards those who don't know her. These divisions show an important split in Tan, her mother tongue, and her Americanized English. Her mother tongue — she claims — affected her scores on placement type tests such as IQ and SAT tests. So, she

One day, when giving a speech about one of her books, Tan senses that she is not using the same form of English she uses at home. The presence of her mother among the audience, makes her notice that there was a switch between the “broken” English she speaks to her mother, and the English uses outside her home.