Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary
Language is an important factor in everyday life. For people who are not English-proficient, this statement is self-evident. When an individual does not understand the language of their environment it is often difficult to keep up with everyone else. People who cannot read, speak or understand the language of their peers face trouble because of their language barrier. Limited communication is a tolling setback in a world where everyday life is shaped by language, where words have an impact. Published author Amy Tan speaks as a bilingual child of a parent whose first language is not English in her article “Mother Tongue” and analyzes the effects of growing up in a bilingual household.
In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, the author discusses her take on certain struggles faced by bilingual individuals. She discusses not only how it has shaped her life, but the
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She speaks of how growing up in a bilingual household affected her but never how not knowing English affected her mother. The reader never receives any insight as to what her mother’s feelings about her broken English are. To truly capture what it is like to be affected by language – or in this case, lack thereof – Tan cannot rely on her experience alone, as she grew up a full English speaker. When mentioning the story with the stockbroker, Amy Tan demonstrates the frustration of speaking as a translator but does not show what her mother must have felt knowing she needed a child to call in her place. While it’s stressful on the translator, the person who relies on the translator is affected as well. Using Amy Tan’s story of her mother at the hospital as an example, she does a limited job to capture her mother’s feelings during the dilemma. While this anecdote holds credibility, emotion and logic, it doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty of the person whose experience mattered most in that situation: her
Aria Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood Summary
800 Words | 4 Pages“Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez highlights the differences between public and private language use. Within paragraph five of his essay, Rodriguez claims, “[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 trivialize the nature of intimate life–a family’s ‘language.’” Rodriguez builds his claim through the use of amplification throughout. With attention to this, it can be shown that this is essential to his piece, with respect to this particular claim he is making.
Summary Of Aria By Richard Rodriguez
819 Words | 4 PagesIn “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she grew up knowing both English and Mandarin in her household. Tan adopted English and felt effortless translating for her mother. This motivated her to learn English at her best potential at school. What inspired her to learn English were the challenge and the
A Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood By Richard Rodriguez
139 Words | 1 PagesIn the essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” (1981), Richard Rodriguez, an experienced writer, expressed that “…it is not possible to for a child – any child – ever to use his family’s language in school” and began expressing his past experiences with bilingualism (510). Rodriguez recollects his feelings toward the accents he has listened to throughout his childhood, his “disabling confusion” from gaining fluency in English and Spanish, and the intimacy passing between sounds and words (519). By implementing his personal experiences, he entices his reader into reading actively in order to express how confusing, yet beneficial bilingualism can be. Rodriguez’s audience is focused to those who can relate when using more than one language
Rhetorical Analysis On Mother Tongue
877 Words | 4 PagesThe Joy of Language In the passage “Mother Tongue”, the author Amy Tan writes about the relationship between her, her mother and the English language. Tan uses various rhetorical strategies to convey the experiences and thoughts she has when it comes to the influence of language on her life and those around her. Through the use of these persuasive language devices, Tan shares what she has learned growing up with different Englishes in her personal and social life. This, in turn, ultimately enables her to convey her love for the English language and the power that it holds.
The Power Of Language In Amyy Tan's Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
943 Words | 4 PagesTan is able to convey the power of language in her writing through the significance of the title "Mother Tongue", by narrating from three different perspectives and through her diction. The title "Mother Tongue" exemplifies the connection between culture and language as one's native language can also be known as their mother tongue. This language is the first language a child hears and learns to speak. Tan's mother tongue is a combination of Chinese and English, which was taught to her by her mother.
Ari Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood By Richard Rodriguez
445 Words | 2 PagesIn the essay, "Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood", Richard Rodriguez explains his opinion on bilingual education based on his own childhood experience. He provides reasons why it would be retrogressive to permit the non-English speaking children use their family language as the language in school. In defending his positions, he provides three ideas to support his position: • The use of family language impedes child’s social growth. Insistence on using Spanish language at home made Rodriguez and his older sister and brother to be socially disadvantaged at school.
Summary Of Aria By Richard Rodriguez
996 Words | 4 PagesThrough his well written essay, Rodriguez clearly, and efficiently conveys his emotions and thoughts about the american culture, and english language, how they both impacted his life not only positively but negatively. He feels that the negative impacts overshadow the positive in regard to the way the situation at home changed drastically. Nonetheless Rodriguez’s appliance of rhetorical devices give an insight of the struggles and obstacles that many bilingual children go through, how their lives change and are never the same, after assimilating a new and different culture then, the one they are so accustomed to. This essay gives readers the possibility understand the message and emotions emitted by Rodriguez, to their own, and more strongly have a grasp of the concept and meaning of the essay. The result of analysing “Aria” leads to realization that the learning of two languages may better the future of a child, and that it will benefit the child academically and socially, when in reality the aftermath of having to adopt an entire new culture, and living by it will affect the child's emotional
Summary Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
303 Words | 2 PagesIn her essay "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan writes about the impact of her mother's limited English on her own writing and sense of self. She describes how envisioning her mother as a reader of her work encouraged her to write more authentically, because it forced her to consider the perspective of someone who was not a native English speaker. Tan writes that she began to see the value in using "simple, direct" language that would be accessible to her mother, rather than trying to impress readers and critics with flowery or complex prose. Tan appreciates the beauty of her mother's broken English and tries to preserve the unique qualities of her mom's speech like “her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her
Summary Of Native Tongue By Gloria Anzaldua
214 Words | 1 PagesIn her essay, Gloria Anzaldua claims that languages come with both personal identities and cultures. We are nothing whether we did not have our own languages. By telling the stories of her as a student such as when her teacher told her “if you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you do not like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.” (Anzaldua 206)
Mother Tongue Summary
714 Words | 3 PagesAfter reading Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, my perspective changed about the struggles for people who are not as good at English. All throughout this article Tan uses personal experience from her mom to show the readers the struggle while also using primary sources to back up her claim. All the evidence backs up her initial claim and as the reader your perspective changes after reading about how she personally was effected. The author 's main claim of Mother Tongue is to persuade people so respect people who struggle with English because she has serval personal connections, she has fact based proof, and she is an experienced writer on this topic and in general. All throughout the reading she uses many personal stories and personal experiences on how difficult it was for her mother to go through her everyday life.
Amy Tan Fish Cheeks Analysis
694 Words | 3 PagesAt the end of the dinner Amy's father burped loudly as it is a sign of respect towards the cook showing gratitude for the food. After everyone had left, Amy’s mother noticed her embarrassment all night and said “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She the handed Amy an early gift, It was a beige tweed colored mini skirt. After she told Amy that she must always be Chinese on the inside and to be proud of who she was, because the only shame is to be ashamed. It took Amy years to truly figure out what her mother was trying to teach her, and after she figured it out she was proud of her ethnicity.
Mother Tongue Analysis
1081 Words | 5 PagesThe article 'Mother Tongue ' by author Amy Tan is about the variations in the English language the author uses in her life. She describes her English when giving a speech to a other people, English she uses when speaking to her mother, and English she uses in her writing. She tells of difficulties faced by both her mother and herself from these many differences. Amy 's goal in this article is to show that a person does not have to speak proper English to be seen as smart or intelligent.
Analysis Of Mother Tongue 'By Cisneros' Only Daughter
685 Words | 3 PagesThe approval and support that she received from her father had a huge impact. She had longed for it and she finally received it. This means that parents determine the level of pride, and self-confidence that their children have. “Mother Tongue” also makes this clear. In this story, Tan describes her mother’s reception of a writing that she had authored: “I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: “So easy to read.”
Amy Tan Research Paper
737 Words | 3 PagesWhen she was around others she would talk differently than how she talks with her mother. “…all the forms of Standard English that I had learned in school and through book, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother” (118). Throughout her story she refers to the English her mother speaks as “Broken English” because her mother would say sentences like “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived” (119). Her mother didn’t have much difficulty understanding or reading English. When Tan was younger, she would feel embarrassed when her mother would speak because many people couldn’t understand her well.
Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
711 Words | 3 PagesShe talks about how her friends could not understand her mother 's talking but Amy thought her mother was good at speaking English. Amy states, "Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother 's English is
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