Native Tongue

Asian-American author, Amy Tan, reflects in her personal essay, Mother Tongue (1991), her perception of language and ethnic identity through an employment of anecdotes and repetition. The history of Asian-Americans goes back to the nineteenth century when thousands of men left their families and homes in China, as well as other Asian countries, to seek their fortunes in the United States (Huntley 21). The Chinese, forming the largest Asian immigrant group, “became the first Asians to experience institutionalized discrimination when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed by Congress, barring the majority of Chinese from entering the United States” (Huntley 21). International and domestic factors during the Cold War finally prompted the abolition of the quota system and the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act (Lee 3). Amy was born in California in 1952 to parents who had emigrated from China several years earlier (Huntley 1). As a second generation American, Tan’s parents wanted her to have “American circumstances and Chinese character” (Huntley 2); to her traditional Chinese parents’ dismay, she fully embraced the dominant American culture outside her home. Through the dual lenses of her American identity and her ethnic roots, Tan creatively shares her own experiences with language and emigration, while exploring the many facets of biculturalism and the challenges of integrating two distinct cultures.

Kathie Snow’s article, People First Language, has many strong points but I found that there were also some points that Snow made that I found to contradict what the author’s main point of the article was. For an example, Snow states in the second paragraph, “They are people: moms and dads; sons and daughters; employees and employers; friends and neighbors; students and teachers; scientists, reporters, doctors, actors, presidents, and more. People with disabilities are people, first. (Snow, 1)” I found this paragraph to really hit home that these people that are being discriminated, and being stereotyped are no different from you or I. As I continued to read, I found that Snow was trying to make a point in saying that many of these stereotypical slangs and words need to go.

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;

Did you know, “men and women talk differently because they are raised in something like two different cultures: a male culture from which young men learn to speak like men and a female culture in which young women learn to speak like women?”(Cooper and MacDonald 9). Well, not actually from two separate cultures, but the idea of men and women being opposites as pointed out in the opening. Deborah Tannen has made her theory that a male culture and female culture each exist, very popular with the human population and has written an extensive book on her theory.

She argues that women`s status in egalitarian societies should be analyzed by utilizing ethnohistorical data and ethnography that considers changes due to capitalism. Using ethno-historical data she argues that 17th century nonpatriarchal society of the Montagnasis-Naskapi Native Americans of the peninsula of Canada did not give authority to one gender over the other and everyone had fair responsibilities and status. Leacock states that the Montagnasi-Naskapi changed their views because of Jesuit missionaries who disapproved of women`s status and converted natives to a patriarchal society. Leacock stated, “the relations reflect the program of the Jesuits to “civilize” the Indians, and during the course of the 17th century they attempted to introduce principles of formal authority, lectured people about obeying newly elected chiefs, and introduced disciplinary measures in the effort to enforce male authority upon women” ( 1978, 247-275). According to Leacock gender inequalities are formed when property relations (capitalism/colonist) change and the division between men and women becomes hierarchal. This was a materialistic approach Leacock took to examine culture and the changes that went underway to transform these

3. In paragraphs 10 through 13, Tan juxtaposes her mother’s English with her own. The point these quoted passages make is to show how different was her mother’s English from her English.

Lakoff sees women “type” as a form of unique language which is "different" from men's because of their powerless position in society that considers male language as a standard language as a comparison, which cause women exploit number of features in language

A week ago I found myself reading Patricia Hill Collins, “It’s All In the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation” and it made me reflect on the ways in which both gender and race are socially built out of distorted interpretations of family. Collectively constructed as opposed to an innate understanding. We have grown dependent on dysfunctional projections of family, giving rise to a hierarchy which aims to serve all: “…a male headship that privileges and naturalizes masculinity as a source of authority…mothers comply with fathers, sisters defer to brothers, all with the understanding that boys submit to maternal authority until they become men.” (Collins 159) The commitment towards this flawed assemblage of characterizations, has in a way, normalized the social hierarchy. However, this expectation has become unrealistic. Many females find that they are not adequately prepared to survive in a male dominated country, although there is little rebellion against these imposed values.

People living in America have different types of accents and dialects due to the groups of people who immigrated here from europe and inhabited in different regions of America. Also, other foreigners who moved from other different parts of the word and settled. The non native english speakers accent in affiliation with the native english speakers gave to the present number of dialects and accents. Today Americans speak a with a wide variety of accents and dialects because of the blending of the native dialect with the foreigners.

As a result of the abuse female characters have faced, it has become an objective for authors to prevent this. There have been clear strides recently, putting women as the protagonists, and not in a manner that has them dealing with persecution. The amount of strong, female characters is a large stride in the right direction to end the conflict regarding women’s roles in literature. However, this sudden influx of women in literature may lead to the reversal of the issue; the absence or abuse of men. While certainly literary equality is the end goal, to flip the issue would be just as bad and lead to sexism on the opposite spectrum. To truly mend the rift between genders, there must be no discrimination, the idea that an author is trying to use sexist undertones by not writing the lead as a female should not have to be an idea that readers think about when analyzing modern books. While even still there are issues of gender inequality in literature, there must be moderation from both ends for a resolution to be possible. The only way for equality to be achieved is with the absence of sexist ideals from all

The author explains to us that many women are subject to subservient functions (Lakoff 46). The roles the sexes play in society have a determination in how they are treated Robin states (Lakoff 46). She tells us about her first hand experiences of this, which cause the reader to sympathize for her (Lakoff 46). The author thinks that we will find two different ways of discrimination women face in language. The author explains the way that women are taught to use language and the way that general language treats them (Lakoff 46). This is where the reader starts to see the problems that women may face. The rhetorical strategy ethos used helps the reader feel for her cause as if it were happening to them first hand. This makes the reader aware of what is going on. At this point the audience can start to

Due to the different ways of expressing politeness and conversational involvement, they may have trouble communicating even if they share the same language. The ‘two cultures' approach proposes that talk between women and men is fraught with potential misunderstanding for much the same reasons that communication across the ethnic groups is (Mary Crawford, Talking Difference On Gender and Language, 1995). Hence, I agree with the point of view of Deborah Tannen. However, "You just don't understand: Women and men in conversation" does not inform readers about the reasons and the consequences of the communication differences between genders. Therefore, this essay will include the above

Every culture sets standards on how a male and a female should be. This can be seen in the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe that the protagonist does all he can to keep up with these gender expectations his cculture sets for him. The protagonist, Okonkwo, lives in a town in Nigeria called Umofia during the 19th century which is a pre-colonial time. In Things Fall Apart, gender expectations build burdens such as men can not show emotions, women have to be submissive, and men must have titles.

Language is one of many components that identify a group of people to their culture. Unfortunately, there are quite a few obstacles that challenge indigenous people learning their native language. The loss of a language distances groups farther from their native roots, which is exactly opposite of the efforts being made in Canada. Learning and practicing an indigenous language fulfills one’s role as an engaged citizen and allows for engagement within a culture. The McGill Tribune published Jenny Shen’s article discussing these common issues regarding revitalizing indigenous languages in Canada. Shen interviews Chelsea Vowel, a woman of Métis descent, who has committed herself to indigenous language education. Vowel states, “The language is what holds our culture together like glue. There is no separation in my mind.” She also points out that it has become harder for people of indigenous descent to learn their language for a number of reasons. Problems that arise consist of not being completely engaged in the native language, deciphering between dialects, and funding issues. The loss of indigenous languages in Canada is a contemporary issue of great concern because many indigenous and nonindigenous people realize the extent of culture loss once a language has dissipated. Shen also gathered information from Anna Daigneult, the Latin America project coordinator and development officer at Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. This institute is an organization

If, in the context of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow (287).