Language Separation in Immigrant Families Essay

Language is also a barrier to communication, if one of the people in the home speaks French you will need to speak French back. You cannot communicate with someone of another language if you don't know the language yourself. So you will need

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.”

Language is one out of many significant factors that both archaic and contemporary civilizations are built on. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria” he focuses on the multiple aspects regarding his experience as a bilingual child. He states in one paragraph that “[i]t is not possible for a child — any child — ever to use his family’s language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life — a family’s ‘language.’” This excerpt is only one example of the way Rodriguez creates his claim through various rhetorical devices.

She had to keep all these English’s separate because each was like its own language. If Amy were to mix them, it would become confusing and wouldn’t have made sense to her or her mother as they had grown accustomed to this language and communication. One language was the English she spoke to her mother. Amy had to simplify her English when speaking to her mother; Amy would speak the basic ideas of what she was trying to say to make it easier for her mother to comprehend. For example she said, “Not waste money that way” to her mother one day; she would even say this to her husband because it was routine to her to do so. When she made a speech once, she felt as if the way she was speaking was wrong because her mother was in the audience. A second English language to Amy was how her mother used English with her. Tan describes her mother’s English as “broken” or “fractured” language. This type of English affected Tan greatly; she said it limited her possibilities in life and also affected her performances in school when she took achievements tests, IQ tests, and the SAT because it limited her language skills. Another type of language that she grew up with was Amy’s translation of her mother’s Chinese. She described it as “watered down” and yet sometimes she would grow in confidence when she was on the phone with people because of this. However, later her self-esteem would lower because of

People from different backgrounds may use and/or interpret communication methods in different ways because every family has their own way of communicating together. For example: some children might hear or speak more than one language at home or they could hear others swearing. This can affect children’s communication and how they communicate as adults.

Language is a very important and significant part of individuals’ life. It is considered as one of the best device of social behavior. Language is a means with the help of which people communicate and send a social message to one another. But language does have very special characteristics according to which it changes and very depending on many factors. According to the researchers there are no two people who speak identically. Their languages vary as per their geographic location, age, gender, ethnicity, social background etc. many a time, it is observed that even the members from same family speak differently due to differences in their location ( Biber & Conrad, 2014). For example, in my neighborhood, there is a difference in the ways of

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.

Language insensitivity signifies a severely alerting issue that countries around the world encounter on a daily basis, which infiltrates into all aspects of life. In the short story Mother Tongue, written by Chinese-American writer, Amy Tan focuses on the power of language while battling the cultural discrimination. The prejudice apparent in Mother Tongue is language. In America, the most common language spoken is English. It is exceedingly rare to find two people who speak the exact same English, however.

Similarly to Tan’s mother, my mother’s English is also “broken.” As a result, it was necessary for me to switch to Cantonese in order to verbally communicate with her. When I was in grade school, I was able to fluently speak Cantonese. However, as time went by, I began to lose the ability to properly speak and fully understand this language. The exposure and experience I got from my mother’s language slowly disintegrated and was superseded by English.

Mother Tongue is at the heart of our understanding various languages. In fact, in this essay, ‘Mother Tongue’, the author Amy Tan of Chinese’s origin describes her experiences in learning the English language and how she has continued to use all types of English, she had grown up with. An adequate understanding of proper English and the use thereof was missed by the author. The author grew up with the English she spoke to her mother, the English her mother used with her and the author’s translation of her mother’s Chinese to English.

Tan’s essay on Mother Tongue depicts a story of a daughter who grew up learning different type of “Englishes” (510). The latter described as the kind of English wherein one may regard as “simple”, yet she fondly refers to as her “Mother’s English.” In addition to those Englishes is the “broken English” or Tan’s mother’s communication style with her. Lastly is Tan’s own translation of her mother’s English which she described as “watered down”

There are over 6909 verbal languages spoken worldwide, not including other methods of communication such as sign language. We all use language our daily lives to express feelings, bring across ideas, and to communicate with one another. What makes language so unique is that each one of them comes with their own culture, customs, and significant meaning. Language is so complex that a simple look or gesture can send a faster message then speaking. In a Mexican American household the language of Spanish is an important key to a Mexican family relationship. The verbal language and non-verbal communication within a Spanish speaking family is significant because it unifies the family and creates an unbreakable bond that only members within that

Lavell, 7, speaks fluent English and a smattering of Mandarin Chinese, while her grandmother, Law Ngoh Kiaw, prefers the Hokkien dialect of her ancestors’ home in southeastern China. That leaves grandmother and granddaughter looking together at a doll house on the floor, unable to exchange more than a few words.

Coming to a new place that is out of your comfort zone is an very difficult task that can take a very long time to adjust to and some people never adjust to the change .In the articles “mother tongue” , “leave your name at the border” and “mute in an English only world” the author'ss Amy tan, manuel Munoz and Chang Rae lee discuss the problems and hardships of being a non native English speaker such as getting employment, the language itself,and even accepted by native English speakers. Not just the speaker themselves, but also their families as well. All while trying to find their place in the United States. One of the huge problems that non native English speakers have to deal with is language.

Language is one of the many things covered in the book as the mothers in the book tend to have a language barrier. The mothers started off in a country where they didn’t speak the common language. One of the mothers, Lindo Jong, says that, “…I tried to get a job as a salesgirl, but you had to know English for that.” She says this as she tries to find a job in a country she had recently moved to. This language barrier continues even when she finds a job, “…She picked up one of the strips of paper and read it aloud, first in English… Then she translated in Chinese.” The problem that Lindo Jong faces isn’t just in English; she also faces this problem with her future husband as he spoke Cantonese and she spoke Mandarin Chinese: “So we were shy at first, your father and I, neither of us able to speak to each other in our Chinese dialects.” Ultimately, the language barrier helps her get engaged to her future husband: “I don’t know this word ‘spouse.’ Tonight I will look in my dictionary. Then I can tell you the meaning tomorrow.” The mothers aren’t the only ones who have to deal with a language barrier. One of the daughters, Jing-mei Woo, experiences this when she goes to China to meet her half-sisters, “Aiyi and my father speak the Mandarin dialect from their childhood, but the rest of the family speaks only the Cantonese of their village.”. She as well states that, “I understand only Mandarin but can’t speak it that well.” This language barrier extends to both the mothers and