Comparing Tan, Anzaldua, And Sedaris Standards Of A 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;

Gloria Anzaldua, the author of “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” expresses a very strong tie that she has to her native language. Anzaldua grew up in the United States, but spoke mostly Spanish. She did not speak the normal form of Spanish though; she spoke Chicano Spanish, a language very close to her heart. The text focuses on the idea of her losing her home accent, or tongue, to conform to the environment she is growing up in. From a very young age, Anzaldua knows that she is not treated the same as everyone else is treated. She knows that she is second to others, and her language is far from second to others as well. Anzaldua stays true to her language by identifying herself with her language and keeping

Anzaldua’s audience is everyone, ranging from immigrants to native United States citizens. In her text she uses examples that many people can relate to when English isn’t their first language or they have a unique difference from the majority. An example I chose to back up my claim is one from Anzaldua's past experiences, this takes place in her childhood dentist office where from the imagery she gives us shows she annoyed with some of the state the dentist is saying about her “strong [and] stubborn” (206) tongue. Even though the comments made by the dentist wasn’t directed towards her language and accent, the way she feels while he’s speaking to her show that she already has some insecurities with the way she speaks. She believes that her language is something that defines her, and if people have a problem with how she speaks they have made up negative assumptions about her.

The rhetorical situation of Gloria Anzaldua’s, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” from her book Borderlands/La Frontera, is the most important piece to her argument. A writer’s rhetorical situation is the use of the elements of the rhetor, audience, text, medium, context and exigence. Through the correct use of these pieces, a writer is able to greatly strengthen their argument and persuasive abilities. In her passage, Gloria Anzaldua is speaking to the unfair and unjust treatment of Spanish speaking children growing up in the United States educational system. These are not just kids who have moved here from a Spanish speaking country, but even those born in the United States that grew up speaking Spanish because of their family’s culture. Through her writing she wants to bring this into light to induce change and help children of the future be able to learn in an environment where they are also able to comfortable speak their own language. She is not looking for them to be able to speak their own language in an American school just because she wants to be difficult. In her eyes, your language is part of your identity of self. And without your language, you are also losing part of yourself. Again, she expresses and increases the persuasiveness of these ideas through the use of her rhetorical situation, which includes the rhetor, audience, text, medium, context and exigence.

People who are different are consequently viewed differently. It is human nature to judge others by the stereotypes that have been ingrained into our minds for however long. Stereotypes, however, may not encompass the whole story. Sometimes, you are only getting the discriminatory side of the story--a single story. Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” focuses on the discrimination towards broken English compared to Standard English and the stereotypes that evolved from such discrimination. Similarly, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” presents the idea that the “single story” is the reason for biased stereotypes that, more often than not, are untrue. Tan’s life in America was seemingly difficult due to the fact that her life and education were dependent on the language barrier between English and her “mother tongue”--the latter being seen as inferior and embarrassing. She initially felt that her mother’s fragmented English was something to be ashamed of since that was the “single story” that her peers have been spoonfed their whole lives. Adichie, however, denies these views by explaining that such stereotypes are incomplete and do not relay the person at hand’s true identity. In both “Mother Tongue” and “The Danger of a Single Story,” the speakers express how a person’s native language influences their identity through rhetorical devices such as ethos, diction, and metaphors.

Ms. Amy Tan recalled in her article “Mothers Tongue” how her mother had not been treated with respect because she spoke broken English. As she looked back over the life of her mother, she realized that this had been a lifelong frustration for her. She wrote how she was frustrated with the term "broken". Her mother was an intelligent woman; therefore, she was not broken by the definition of broken. She even recalls one time where she had to pretend to be her mother on the phone because her mother was not taken seriously. Tan used people wrongfully labeled, personal experience, and intelligence was not based on vocabulary to explain that people need to be treated with respect.

What does it feel like to be raised in an immigrant family? In the essay “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan, the author describes how her mother’s English influences her in her career and life that the “mother tongue” does not limit her as a writer, but shaped her and her perception on life instead. And her attitude to her mother’s English changes from the initial embarrassment to the final appreciation.

The article "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan shows firsthand instances of how Amy's mother was treated because of the way she spoke. She was disregarded, not taken seriously, and thought of as dim. The author uses logic, emotion, and reasoning to show why this way of thinking is not often true. The article’s main claim of how people perceive the intelligence of those who speak broken English is easily defined because of the authors use of writing techniques like telling personal stories, creating an appeal to emotion, and an appeal to logic.

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

A woman Rachel jeantel was elevated by a responses to her evidence. As Jeantel affirmation began much of her judgement was because of her language. Jeantel was exposed to an extreme for linguistic prejudice. The language Rachel spoke was African American English. African American English is a particular form of a language spoken by African American in the United State. The standard language Ideology is a belief that differ from the way, speaking is wrong, brainless and has no regulation. Isolate dialect do not have anything permanent bad or wrong about them, nor standardized dialects do not have anything essential about them. Linguistic discrimination is still preconception. Linguistic discrimination can have actual results. Which entrance

In Gloria Anzaldúa’s piece, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she explores the complex relationship that ties identity to language. She describes how childhood and adult experiences shape who she is today. She provides a glimpse into the life of a person who speaks a minority language in a majority population. She begins the essay by recounting an experience of a dentist capping a tooth and trying in vain to control her tongue. He becomes frustrated with her as she pushes out the swabs of cotton, instruments, and other implements with her tongue. She shares this story because it represents the role society plays in systematically pressuring those who speak minority dialects to adopt the majority language. This social manipulation can be direct such as shaming someone who speaks their native language or it can be indirect such as providing access to economic benefits such as a higher-paying job for those who assimilate.

Tan tells her story “Mother Tongue” to relate her experiences with her mother’s dialect of English. Her mother did not speak English well and therefore, used “broken” English that was not simple to understand, although Tan was able to understand it quite well. She explains that her mother’s English was perfect and clear, almost better than regular English. She states “Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world” (Tan, 2006, P.2). This strengthens the idea that their language was their bond as Tan saw no flaw in her mother’s English. To Tan, there was nothing

As the world becomes more connected through the internet, it becomes more apparent that the prevalence of the “monolingualism as the gold standard” myth is continually perpetuated by largely monolingual populations, as Ioulia stated. The monolinguals in those areas may judge both bilingual children and adults by their linguistic abilities compared to their own grasp on their one language. Biases may develop or already be present against speakers with non-native accents or that make semantic or syntactical mistakes; this in turn may encourage bilinguals to speak the language of their current community more, and it may even cause them to raise the next generation (their children) monolingually, forfeiting the heritage language in favor of the non-heritage language. These

It is no secret that there have been efforts in different parts of the world that aim to improve the educational system. These efforts manifest themselves in raising the bar in educational standards. At the very heart of this revolution is the quandary on the need to make Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), which has been a divisive one since there are those who argue that this is not relevant given the high rate of usage of the English language, albeit it is not one’s native tongue. In succinct, TOEFL is a standardized test of English language proficiency that is in status quo taken by non-native English speakers when they want to enroll in any United States (US)