Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

Asian-American author, Amy Tan, reflects in her personal essay, Mother Tongue (1991), her perception of language and ethnic identity through an employment of anecdotes and repetition. The history of Asian-Americans goes back to the nineteenth century when thousands of men left their families and homes in China, as well as other Asian countries, to seek their fortunes in the United States (Huntley 21). The Chinese, forming the largest Asian immigrant group, “became the first Asians to experience institutionalized discrimination when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed by Congress, barring the majority of Chinese from entering the United States” (Huntley 21). International and domestic factors during the Cold War finally prompted the abolition of the quota system and the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act (Lee 3). Amy was born in California in 1952 to parents who had emigrated from China several years earlier (Huntley 1). As a second generation American, Tan’s parents wanted her to have “American circumstances and Chinese character” (Huntley 2); to her traditional Chinese parents’ dismay, she fully embraced the dominant American culture outside her home. Through the dual lenses of her American identity and her ethnic roots, Tan creatively shares her own experiences with language and emigration, while exploring the many facets of biculturalism and the challenges of integrating two distinct cultures.

In the work of Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue” she provides a look into how she adapted her language to assimilate into American culture. She made changes to her language because her mother heavily relied on her for translation. She was the voice of her mother, relaying information in standard English to

In Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan discusses how the way her bilingual mother speaks negatively affects how people perceive her intellect. Despite the fact that Tan’s mother is actually very intelligent and understands more than many people expect her to, she often is ignored and belittled because of how she speaks. Tan feels that those who ignore and belittle her mom are oblivious to the beauty, complexity, and richness of her mother’s speech. In Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan shows that the belief that standard English is inherently better than other forms of English is flawed by questioning the prominence of proper English and sharing how rich and beautiful her mother’s English can be.

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 her essay, “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan permits the reader to identify with her mother by recounting examples of her real life experiences that depict the hardships encountered by the broken English speaker in today’s society. She reveals the different Englishes that she has used since she was a child. She notes that the simple English she uses with her mother and the broken English in which her mother responds is familiar English used by the two of them, but it is not necessarily understood by others. People such as Tan’s mother, who speak broken English, have a difficult time blending into society because they lack the skill to communicate effectively, cannot demonstrate the full extent of their intelligence and are unable to affirm their worth.

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 Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue, Tan examines the value judgement placed on speech, and how different forms of English are used to effectively communicate in different settings. Growing up in an immigrant household, Tan has first hand accounts of how “broken speech” can affect how people perceive who you are. Through personal anecdotes, the author discusses how different people have treated her mother as though she were inferior due to her “broken” speech. Tan has often had to act as a sort of “bridge” for communication for her mother. At first, these instances were a source of embarrassment for Tan; she felt as if “her English reflected the quality of what she had to say… Because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were

I did not get the chance to attend school at first because I was born later in the year; so, there I was; four years old and I didn’t know a word of English. No one truly knows how difficult it is to come to a country and not be able to speak the language; however, the time had come, and I attended kindergarten. I was tortured and ridiculed because I spoke a “funny” language; kids can be so cruel. I felt trapped in a country where Arabic was not understood. Tears would roll down my face, as I could not get a word across efficiently; nevertheless, I did learn English. It took me some time, but that was just one barrier I had to overcome. I had

I moved to Tennessee when I was ten years old. I left my home, school, family, and friends due to my mom’s marriage to my stepfather who lived in a different country; although they were together for five years, I never expected to move so far away from everything I had ever known and grown to love. I attended Smyrna middle school that year and no longer had friends, my new “home” didn’t feel like home to me and the rest of my family now lived 12 hours away by plane. I couldn’t speak English and was instantly placed in an ESL classroom. To my luck, my teacher was very passionate about his job. He could speak eight languages, one of them happened to be Portuguese. He was thrilled about having me in his classroom,

Then after a wonderful three years we moved back to the United States. When asked what was my favorite food I replied “fish balls”. The teacher thought I was trying to say meatballs. Similarly, none of the other kids understood why I ate curry, loved mandarin class or had chinese toys at home. It didn’t matter that I was back in the US, I still had a part of me that was distinctly Hong Kong.

Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as “broken” and “fractured”, Amy Tan’s love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of English that surrounded her. In her short essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one’s inability to speak the way society expects. Disallowing others to prove their misconceptions of her, Tan exerted herself in excelling at English throughout school. She felt a need to rebel against the proverbial view that writing is not a strong

In Mother Tongue by Amy Tan she describes the challenges she faced growing up and being between heavily influenced by her mother’s pidgin english and the traditional school system’s way of learning english. By the time Amy Tan was fifteen years old she had surpassed her mother’s level of english comprehension and in doing so Tan was able to see how different society treats a person when they lack the ability to speak proper english. Amy Tan had admittedly had a hard time in school with English but excelled in math and sciences. Tan’s method of understanding english is open ended and more imaginative than a normal American kid whose creativity has been restricted by the American education system. Amy Tan realized that English was not her strong

In the ‘Mother Tongue’, Amy Tan explains how she dwells among two worlds regarding language. With her family, especially her own mother, Amy’s speech is simple english. While in the outside world Amy uses traditional textbook english. As she grew up, Amy conveyed that she felt ashamed of her mother’s limited english. For example, Amy recounts an instance when she imitated her mother on the phone, because her mother’s stock broker lost a check. During her conversation with the New York City stock broker, Amy desperately tried to sound like an adult. All the while her mother noisily conveyed responses in the background. Also Amy conveys that she is disappointed in society, specifically pertaining to the treatment of individuals with broken english.

Amy Tan is an English major and an author. In “Mother Tongue” from The Threepenny Review, Amy Tan (1989) Tan examines the different versions of English that she finds herself using in different situations as well as the English her mother uses and how her mother’s version of English has a major impact on the way her mother is treated by strangers.

In the “Mother Tongue” essay by Amy Tan, Tan shares her discoveries approximately the one-of-a-kind variations of English she discovered developing up in an Chinese-American household, after which reflects on these findings. Tan shows the reader that racial profiling nevertheless exists, even in a time wherein all of us are promised freedom and equality inside the world. Tan talks about not only does the profiling exist and occur, but that it's also performed incorrectly and inefficiently. Tan truly demonstrates profiling by surpassing any check that recommended she observe medicinal drug or engineering. In her essay it is substantial that each one the proof used to assist Tan's arguments are past experiences she had as a toddler developing up, speaking what turned into considered "broken" English. I can without a doubt relate to Amy Tan’s essay due to the fact I too got here from a bilingual domestic and like Amy Tan, I had clever immigrant parents and I turned into their foremost avenue of communication with folks who didn’t apprehend them.