Asian Art Museum Intertextual Analysis

Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese," (Tan, paragraph 6). This gives the audience insight into Tan's world and the world around us. This statistics provided by Tan also gives her words credibility as an author discussing linguistic challenges faced by immigrants by using someone near and dear to her, her mother.

Contrary to unification, language can divide people. Finally, In “The Power of Words in Wartime”, Robin Lakoff shows how specific language makes it easier to kill the enemy while at war. Language is a beautiful gift that can bring people together just because they speak the same language. In, “Mute in an English Only World”, Chang-Rae Lee writes about his mother who is a Korean-American immigrant and, how she was not capable of doing everyday tasks because of her lack of knowledge of English.

“Mother Tongue” is an essay by Amy Tan that examines the ways in which people treat those who do not speak or act like them. Simply, how people perceive those that are different . The main purpose of “Mother Tongue” is to inform the readers of the ways they might intentionally or unintentionally be treating people who speak broken english as Tan’s mother does. This essay highlights the extreme importance of language and how it connects with everyone’s day to day lives.

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

English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize

In our world of expanding technology and shrinking geography, people of different cultures have increasing frequency of contact and need for effective communication on a daily basis. Whether through travel, immigration, or international business, having the ability to communicate across many different cultures is an advantage in and of itself. Speaking a different language is an obvious obstacle to intercultural communication, but a greater and more difficult hurdle is to “speak” a different culture. To understand and comprehend and even apply these tiniest

When I guide my friend Tianchu, an exchange student from Beijing, around school, we engage in a constant exchange of cultural nuances and slang. But after years of casual conversation and practical application, my curiosity leads me to wonder. Each language requires me to observe different aspects of my life. So, are the languages I use merely tools for expressing my thoughts, or do they actually shape my thoughts? In fact, do I attend to, partition, and remember my experiences differently because I choose one set of semantics over

Unconsciously, we all speak different languages; we categorize the way we speak by the environment and people at which we are speaking too. Whenever a character enters an unfamiliar environment, they experiment with language to find themselves and understand reality. For immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation

Read carefully the following piece of text. What does it tell us about cross cultural encounters?

What does “race” mean to you? How does your race affect your life? Are races really so different? You might answer these questions differently after visiting the RACE exhibit at the Museum of Natural Sciences. From understanding skin color to examining how systematic racism impacts minorities today, this exhibit is incredibly inclusive and eye-opening. One of our favorite interactive components was an activity in which you listen to a person talking and try to determine his or her race. It was very interesting because it forces you to face any misconceptions you may have about how a person of a certain race “should” sound. We all performed poorly at identifying the speakers, which caused us to inflect on our own stereotypical thoughts. The

Have you ever assimilated poor use of language to someone having little intelligence? Well, in the essay “Mother Tongue,” a well-known author by the name of Amy Tan, portrays the hardships and preconceived notions others had of her mother’s broken English and the assumptions they held of her intelligence based upon her fluency. And so, Amy Tan uses ethos, logos and pathos to convey the language barriers held in her mother’s personal experiences as a non-English speaking citizen, to her audience of readers.

History and culture has for a long time been preserved in places such as museums which allow different people learn from past events thereby, allowing them to have a better understanding of that particular culture. Many countries around the globe ensure that the preservation of their culture and heritage is protect thereby creating places such as museums for that purpose. One of those museums is the Japanese American National Museums which showcases their history and culture and how all this has shaped its peoples history.

Language plays an important role in communication by bringing people together and enriching their relationships. Language can also alienate those who do not speak it properly, or at all, from those who do. The essays, Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan, best known for her book, The Joy Luck Club, and Se Habla Espanol, by Tanya Barrientos, delve into the many powers that language holds. These essays reflect how by not speaking a language in proper form and by not speaking a language at all, affects the lives of the subjects of the stories.

In the world today, there are more and more multicultural people who can speak different languages; and they need to choose different tongues to correspond to the immediate community they belong. Language makes people remember their own cultures and contribute to their own identity. In “Mother Tongue,” a short story written by Amy Tan; she strongly narrates the stories about her different experiences and life comprehensions based on varying types of English she speaks throughout life. Wandering on two different languages; Amy discovers the importance and power of language: “the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” (Tan 38). As human beings, language is the tool that contains the mighty powers; it forcefully affects people’s lives, personality, and lifestyles. Moreover, language is the “bridge” of communication between people. However, for Amy, the views on mother’s language are changing from the sense of shame into pride; as she is feeling the effects that two different types of English are giving to her as well as their respective symbols in her mind.

Mrs. Osaki’s national origin, language, gender, social class, culture, size and location of the community interact with each other. Mrs. Osaki’s national origin interacts with her language. She spoke Japanese because she lived in Japan. This caused a language barrier and caused her to feel isolated because she never learned English well. This is a feeling of frustration because I remember when I first came to the United States from Jamaica. My English was broken and although I understood