Amy Tan Mother's Tongue

We all have some form of language limitations, no matter where we come from and what our background is. “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua both share similar themes in their stories that demonstrate how they both deal with how different forms of the same language are portrayed in society. In both stories they speak about what society declares the right way of speech and having to face prejudgment, the two authors share their personal experiences of how they’ve dealt with it. Both authors go in detail about their ethnic backgrounds and blend their language for us to better understand throughout their story.

Amy Tan’s purpose in her article “Mother Tongue” is to show the influence of her mother’s style of english. She also relates this to a more broad topic of the idea that there are many different types of english that people speak that are tailored to whoever they are speaking to. She begins this piece by stating plainly that she is not an english scholar. Instead of decreasing her credibility it actually increases it and paints this piece as a more personal set of observations rather than a bland overview of the entire language. By making it more personal it allows the reader to connect to the author because she seem like a normal person you might run into on the street rather than an isolated scholar. She also mentions that she is a writer and an english major which gives her credibility by implying that she has

Like the narrator’s father, he notices the family’s cultural identity is slowly dying. His wife, a native Malaysian, is adopting a new identity as a “sales clerk at [Woodworks]” (340) in Canada. In marriage, a couple is supposed to share the responsibility to raise their children and support each other. However, she may have given up on the teaching responsibility from the moment the language “never came easily to [the daughter]” (340). Ultimately, the father is solely responsible handing down his family’s cultural and social roots to his children. The father tried to teach his daughter the culture through rice cooking, but she fails to replicate the method; whereas the brother avoids the cultural lessons by integrating himself into the local culture. This heavily suggests the brother rejects speaking the language and the culture, compared to the daily exposure of the Canadian culture and speaking English.

After 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.

The Anglo or English speakers felt that if she “wanted to be American” she must speak ‘American’ (page 26). I believed that this somewhat angered her, because she was being pressured to eradicate her accent, but there is no way for her to get rid of it. This conclusion was drawn when she states, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (page 30). The title “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” reveals about the text that it’s hard to control someone or something that has been well accustomed to a habit or way of

The United States is made up of some of the most diverse and interesting cultures in the world. Jamila Lyiscott proves this by showing her different dialects and how they are all equally important. Lyiscott believes that the way she speaks towards her parents, towards her friends, and towards her colleagues are all one in the same.

The way a person speaks is a direct link to a person’s culture and the environment which he or she was raised in. A person’s language, skin color as well as economic status influences the way he or she is perceived by others. Lisa Delpit and eleven other educators provide different viewpoints on how language from students of different cultures, ethnicity, and even economic status can be misinterpreted due to slang and dialect or nonstandard English by the teachers as well as his or her own peers.

In the article, ”My English” by Julia Alvarez, the author wrote about her experience as she learn to speak English. Spanish was her mother tongue and struggled to speak English in the early phases. She thought that English was a form of Spanish, as there are different dialects in Spanish. Her parents spoke English when they didn’t want her and her siblings to know what was going on. He was curious about what they were talking about and tries to interpret the meaning form the facial expressions her mother made. She started learning English at Carol Morgan school and it was strange for her to see the American people and their appearances which differ from her. She got mixed up with Spanish and English as she starts to learn English.

The piece of writing I am using for my rhetorical analysis is Mother Tongue by the famous author Amy Tan. Amy Tan is the author of such books as The Joy Luck Club. Mother Tongue was originally published in 1990 by the Sandra Dijsktra Literary Agency. Then was reprinted in Everything is an Argument with readings, by Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, and Walters. The text book was published by Bedford/ St. Martin’s in 2013. Mother Tongue was originally part of a speech that Amy Tan had given while she participated in a panel entitled,”Englishes: Whose English is it anyway?” in 1989. The author describes in detail how she finds herself using various forms of English, depending on who she is around. She also makes the point on how hard life can be for someone who doesn’t speak good English. She goes into her own historical and cultural background to detail how this came about. Including her stories about impersonating her mother for her mother.

Language originates from many places and has many dialects. Each unique idiom carries different cultures as well as history to show how that way of speaking came to be. There are diverse ways of talking too, such as how Hawaii has developed “Pidgin”, a part of the English language that came into existence as the old islanders began to speak to one another in their own way. This was to make speaking English much more casual and faster. Lisa Kanae points out in her story Sista Tongue that language is different and is created through many different events in history as well as the mixing of cultures. Contrary to the excerpt by Madorah E. Smith, Lisa Kanae views language as the beauty and diversity of the

Immigration has been occurring since the dawn of time, People moving from one place to another for better living conditions. Immigration is both good and bad for the country that is involved. People bringing in great new ideas to help grow the country but it can also created over population and less job opportunity for the citizens of the country. These are all mentioned in Plymouth Plantation, Mother Tongue, Balboa, and Blaxicans. Immigrants’ impact on America is both negative and positive depending on the viewpoint of the original culture.

There are two type of families. There is one family that speak only English and the other one that speak their home language and English in their household. Those type of families that speak two or more languages in their household are mostly immigrants that move to the United States. Their child or children will grow up speaking perfect English while their parents will speak poor English. In Amy Tan “Mother Tongue”, she talks about how without proper English it is sometimes difficult to get through daily life. On the other hand, in Richard Rodriguez “ Public and Private Language”, he talks about how people who are out in public they tend to speak in English and when they are at home they will speak in a language that makes them more comfortable. Both authors struggle in English but in different ways.

For numerous amounts of people, with English being their second language, they have been described as having "Broken English". "Broken English" refers to a poorly spoken or ill-written version of the English language. One article called "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan discusses the effects of growing up with a Chinese mother who has "Broken English". In fact, Tan deliberates about the limitations and criticism of growing up with her mother. Although Tan speaks articulate English, she still can comprehend with her mother 's "Broken English". In this article, Tan 's argue that her mother 's "Broken English" has caused unfairness, disinterest, and limitations throughout their life.

It is commonly believed that parents’ love are strict because they wants their children can be an useful person to the society so, a lot of Chinese mothers always enforce their children to do something. These mothers have a common name “Tiger mother”. In the stories “Tiger Moms” and “Two kinds” were written by Annie Murphy Paul and Amy Tan respectively. In these stories, there are two rigorous mothers: Amy Chua and Amy’s mother. Both of them were very strict to their kids. Finally Amy Chuan released she was wrong and she made a change but Amy’s mother did not change her mind at last, she was not be willing to compromise with her daughter.

The 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.