Chinglish Essay

There is a linguistic gap between the mothers, who are the first generation of Chinese immigrants, and their American-born daughters. The mothers speak only fragments of English and their daughters speak little or no Chinese at all. So the communication often becomes a matter of translations and leads to misunderstandings. The first misunderstanding with translation is shown when Jing-mei tries to explain the significance of the club’s name,

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan an American writer, shares her experience growing up with the family where no one speaks perfect English, and how it affected her education and her life. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mother, who speaks limited English needs Tan to be her “Translator” to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan states, “I was ashamed of her English” (2). Her mother is like a burden to her, at least in Tan’s early years. But the cultural conflict she becomes the theme of her writing and it is under this situation she wrote many novels and essays including “Mother Tongue.”

There are numerous bilingual and multicultural individuals on the planet today. For some, decisions of which language they utilize, and how they utilize it, relate to what social or social group they have a place with. Amy Tan, a Chinese American writer, depicts this well in her short exposition “Mother Tongue”. Tan experienced childhood in two unfathomably unique universes utilizing diverse English’s. The primary world, which comprises of her nearby family, she talks what we may call “broken” or “constrained” English. The second world, which is her business and expert world, tan talks and composes culminate standard and scholastic English.

To show this point the author’s write about Cao’s experiences with a language struggle between family members. This narration gives the reader a close up look at how language works in a family. Besides using narration she always uses a little cause and effect by sharing the results of having language separation. She gave three examples of conversational situations in her household. The languages Vietnamese, Hainanese, Mandarin, and English are used interchangeably. Looking at the dialogues in the article made the conversation seem broken because there were four languages being used. The first conversation is between Cao’s mom and one of her siblings, Tung. It has to do with Tung not wanting to eat the large amount of noodles Mom prepared for him. Then she asks about Tung’s homework and he is unable to explain it to her because they do not share a fluent language between them. In the article this selection was described as a “routinized interactive exchange” (Thomas & Cao 64). This means that the two of them were able to have small talk based on things like food. But they

In more modern times the interaction of English speakers with other languages, through first colonialism, and later the emergence of English as a global language has enriched the vocabulary (‘pyjama’) and led to the evolution of different versions of English around the world, for example the hybrid ‘Singlish’ that has emerged in Singapore.

To be orphaned from my native language felt, and still feels, a crucial decision” (Li 144). Yiyun mentions how she does not write in Chinese nor does she have her books translated into Chinese. The reason for Yiyun distancing herself from her native language is because it is not “her private language.” In her memoir, Yiyun expands on how English is her private language. According to Yiyun, “English is my private language. Every word has to be pondered over before it becomes my word...In my relationship with English, in this relationship with its intrinsic distance that makes people look askance, I feel invisible but not estranged. It is the position I believe I always want in life” (Li,146). In the English language, Yiyun felt she could truly express herself. Every word she thought and wrote down belonged to her. Chinese, on the other hand, was her public language. In Chinese, Yiyun questioned if “one could form a precise thought, recall an accurate memory, or even feel a genuine feeling” (Li 147). In other words, Chinese limited the way Yiyun could express her emotion and ideas, which is why she chose to distance herself from it.

In our life, not all people speak the English language speak it the same way. A language can be subdivided into any number of dialects which each vary in some way from the parent English language. "Mother Tongue," is the article based on the power of language; In her essay Mother Tongue, Amy Tan wrote some anecdotes of her mother and the influence of her mother's limited English on her early development, expressing her understanding of mother tongue. The evidence suggests that there are three messages conveyed in this essay, which is that mother tongue helped her understand her mother step by step, find her culture root and then achieve a balance between American culture and Chinese culture, and shape her thinking system.

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and the text by Diana Eades focus specifically on the form of language used and the discrimination it entails. Amy Tan describes the language used by Daisy Li as “broken or fractured English” (Tan, A, 1990). This is an example of language discrimination as it criticises and condemns the variation or form of English spoken by Li, which is Chinese-English. This language discrimination is also prominent in the experience of Daisy Li conversing with the stockbroker in New York, as she forces her daughter to speak for her. This is due to the certain limitations accompanied with her particular form of English.

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

Delving into Suyuan Woo’s experience, she encountered mistranslation after immigrating to America and being inclined to adapt to a new culture. Suyuan proclaimed, “This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good

In the personal essay “My Mothers Tongue” (1990), Amy Tan, widely known author explains her insights on language and culture identity using details and memories from her own life experiences. Tan conceals that the language in which her mother used with her “was the language that helped shape the way [she] saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world” (1208) and in the process it made her who she is today as an author. Tan illuminates the euro centricity of the Master Narrative by retelling stories of her mother being treated poorly because of her “broken” or “limited” English. She recalls many past experiences where her mother suffered from bad service and treatment from restaurants, stockbrokers, and even hospitals. Using examples from her personal life Tan gets her point across about language and culture characteristics in order to show how Chinese culture is affected by the master narrative and also encourages others to include a variety of cultures in order to overcome bias opinions. Tan’s apparent audience can be ranged from the child of an immigrant to a doctor and offers an authentic and rich portrayal of Chinese history through her conflicting experience of her Chinese and American cultures.

     The Chinese language is one of the oldest and complicated language in the world. Chinese language is single syllable which is the

Nowadays, the roles of English around the world have changed rapidly. English only served as the first or the second language of certain countries some years ago. Recently, English has a new role as a language which is used as a means of communication between people with different

As we all know, China is a traditional country that has over 5000 years experience. This country was separated after a long time United. Also, was did the opposite after an extended period playing before the last Dynasty: Qing dynasty. Hence, we have accumulated much knowledge that beyond our imagine. One of the accumulation is reflected on the Linguistic feature that we called discourse markers in Mandarin. Simple compare to the English discourse marker "like." one as a verb meaning 'enjoy ' and also has a meaning as a pause in a sentence. In Mandarin, there are also have a lot of different meaningful discourse marker, such as Ni Chi Le Ma?(have you eat before?) or Shuo Ni Shen Me Hao Ne?( how can I tell you ?) Unlike the English discourse marker is A word, Mandarin discourse marker is a short sentence. Moreover, the using of the discourse marker depends on the situation that the speakers are in. Based on the 0stman(1981), the first person that come up with the word 'discourse marker. ' Due to the discourse marker was argued with how to defined it, the linguists were more likely to study the grammar, sentence structure, and meaning of the discourse marker. However, as the deep study of the discourse marker, the clearer that the discourse marker was 'In the verbal or conversational communication, it is a very common phenomenon of discourse markers. '(Ran yongping 2000).

There are many bilingual and multicultural people in the world today. For many, the choices of which language they use, and how they use it, correspond to what social or cultural community they belong to. Amy Tan, a Chinese American novelist, portrays this well in her short essay "Mother Tongue." Tan grew up in two vastly different worlds, using different "Englishes." The first world, which consists of her close family, she speaks what we may call "broken" or "limited" English. The second world, which is her business and professional world, Tan speaks and writes perfect standard and academic English. Having to "shuttle" between these two communities with very different languages has had many different positive and negative effects on