Mother Tongue Amy Tan Summary

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.

In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan addresses the issue of non-native English speaker, who is Tan’s mother, and native speaker, who is Tan. Tan talks about different “Englishes” in her life. Tan’s English is mostly fluent, academic and formal. Tan describes her mother’s as “broken English” which mostly translate Chinese to English directly. Due to the unfamiliar to the language, Tan’s mother is always ignored by her stockbrokers and doctors, but Tan always get answered from the same parties by her standard English. Racial discrimination is shown through the different treatment of Tan and Tan’s mother.

From an article called My Mother’s English of Vision Across Americas, the author called Amy Tan intend to tell us that the differences between her mother’s English and standard English. Plus, the process of how she finds these differences. Moreover, she tells us the influence of it to her mother, even to her. She makes some examples to prove that her mother suffered from unfair treatment because of her mother’s nonstandard English. In other words, English limit affect the daily life of her mother. Therefore, she always pretends to be her mother when she was fifteen years old. When she grows up, she was ashamed of her English and find why her English is different from other people. Then, she tries her best to improve her English.

In her article “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan maintains that the inability to speak the “correct” English does not reflect intelligence; however most people believe it does. Tan’s mother experience shows how society treats a non-fluent English speaker. Tan, a daughter of a Chinese immigrant family who fled China’s Cultural Revolution, used to go with her mother to stores and banks; Tan admits. “ I was ashamed of her English” (78); people ignored Tan’s mother because “the way she expressed her thoughts were imperfect” because of her “limited” English (78). As a consequence, Tan “tried to distance herself from her ethnicity” (76). How can a person think of such a thing? Simple answer: because if you don't speak English, you are not intelligent; this

In Amy Tan’s story “Mother’s Tongue”, Tan argues that the way people speak the English language is directly taken from how family members have adopted the English language or dialect that they speak. Tan also claims that these “broken or limited” (635) forms of English are taken less seriously and people who speak it are often perceived as less intelligent. Tan encountered many experiences in relation to this theory; her mother would make Tan talk on the phone to customer service, because they would never take her mother seriously and would often be disrespectful because of how she spoke “broken” English. Tan was embarrassed and even ashamed of her mother’s form of English, because she knew her mother’s thoughts were clear, but the way that

I am going to make a jacket in a peach colour, I am making this for myself for winter. I will have it full in the arms soi am warm and is perfct for cold, since my envirmoent is a winter/spring so I will be warm with the long sleeves but on the the front it is very layerde and flowy fabric and this is still warm but gives the spring effect. The jacket is good for dressing up or just casual. At the end of this internal what I wanted to suceed in was making a jacket, clutch bag and trousers that all fit me and are comfy to wear through spring while loking good on me and matching my colour sense, During class we had a colour test to see what colours we suit and this is the reason I chose the peach.

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

The article "Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is insightful because she shares the struggles of growing up as a bilingual Asian-American, where in her home English wasn't the primary language. She expresses the challenges she faces in her life growing up hearing her mother using broken English. Amy Tan can speak fluent English she proves this by starting off her writing by explaining the first time her mother heard her speaking in the English she doesn’t use at home(Amy Tan, 20 ). She grew up using the limited English that was inherited from her mother. Amy Tan was ashamed by the “Broken English” and how people view her mother, but She then learns to accept her background. The author's goal is to show the audience that when it comes to the perception of perfect English there should be no boundaries because everyone has their own understanding of what perfect English is, based on mother tongue, that shapes their perspective on the world. She supports this throughout her essay by giving several examples of how everyone viewed her mother's English as broken or fractured. Although Amy was ashamed of her mother's "Broken English," she viewed it as if it was normal. Growing up in America for a person who is not fluent in the English language can be hard because they are discriminated against, their ideas are viewed as imperfect and they receive low expectations from others.

The purpose of Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue,” is to show how challenging it can be if an individual is raised by a parent who speaks “limited English” (36) as Tan’s mother does, partially because it can result in people being judged poorly by others. As Tan’s primary care giver, her mother was a significant part of her childhood, and she has a strong influence over Tan’s writing style. Being raised by her mother taught her that one’s perception of the world is heavily based upon the language spoken at home. Alternately, people’s perceptions of one another are based largely on the language used.

Azul Arista Mrs. Cox English 14 May 2018 Greek Gods In the Greek country there are a lot of gods, each one of them have different powers. Each one of them used their powers differently, in Greek. All of the gods are special, each one of those gods, have their own history to be told. All gods and goddess are important, too.

Language as a combination of single words and different ideas affects us everyday in life. 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.

However as Amy Tan reflects upon in her essay ‘’Mother Tongue’’, ‘’She used to have me call people on the phone to pretend to I was she.’’(Tan, Tongue) A young Amy would have to translate her mother's broken english whenever an important call would have to be made, or any transaction was needed. Making it very difficult for her family to afford what they needed, along with the overall discrimination.‘’The fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.’’(Tan, Tongue) Not having the ability to communicate as easily as her daughter meant that her options for work were very

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan describes how her mother’s English impacted her views of the world as she was growing up, which made her experiences more valuable. With Chinese parents growing up in America, Tan noticed some issues her mother came upon with the English language, such as how society assumes that language and intelligence are equivalent of one another. Describing her mother’s English, she explains the struggles of others compared to herself as “Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue...vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery...that helped the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the

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

Looking around us today the youth of our nation is far more advanced in many aspects then ever before. From the mature styles of clothing to their ability to operate technology better then their parents, adolescents believe they are mentally older and able to make adequate decisions. This is a dangerous mind frame to have when the world around these adolescents is a rapidly growing marijuana market. Medical marijuana is a popular topic of conversation with not enough emphasis on its direct effect on the listening ears of children. The idea of medical marijuana is a stepping-stone in adolescents’ minds with the impression of, if it is considered medicine it’s there to help. In a perfect world adolescents would be sheltered from all harm but our world is not perfect and medical marijuana is a downward spiral with its increased use by children. Proactive action is necessary against this easily accessible drug to protect the innocents of the children and as a society we can do so by diminishing its name, false praises, and availability.