Amy Tan's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

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. Their continued use of Spanish as their private language stunted their ability and confidence to speak English. This slowed their assimilation in the American society (Rodriguez).

Although it is nearly impossible to get an entirely accurate count, there exist at least 6,500 languages (Leonard et. al., 59). Something tells me that if language were about something as simple as communication, that number would be smaller. In all actuality, people feel deeply connected to their native languages for another reason. Language and culture are one and the same, and Gloria Anzaldua illustrates this in her piece “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” using examples of changes and suppressions of her language, to represent changes and suppressions of her culture as a whole. As a result, it is exceedingly important that efforts are made towards language and, accordingly, cultural preservation. This is evident not only in the piece itself, but through much of linguistic discourse as well.

César Chávez once said “Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers”.

The tongue is a needed part to the body which has many functions. The tongue is used to taste scrumptious foods which we crave, and more importantly, is used to form words. These words however, can be used for good, or for bad. Each and every word that is whispered, uttered, spoken or yelled from a mouth, will either be accepted, or hated. The words that are hated are taught to be put on a leash, but “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out.”(374) In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Ms. Anzaldúa states the quote above. Although bold, I agree and disagree with this quote at the same time. I agree that wild tongues cannot be tamed, but I disagree that wild tongues can only be cut out. I believe once a tongue utters it’s first words, there is no way to limit what comes out.

For many immigrant families moving into the U.S the culture shock is significant. Families can easily be overwhelmed by their need to fit into their new surroundings. This is especially true for children in these families. It is easy for children to get caught up in the American way of life, and that can cause the original culture to be forgotten. That is why the adults in these families have to enforce their native culture on their children, so the adults can make sure that those customs are not forgotten.

Throughout the story, “Invierno” by Junot Dìaz, there are many journeys that are taken by each character. Each character had experienced a different journey whether if it was a literal or metaphorical journeyed. In the short story, “Invierno” by Junot Dìaz, Mami takes a literal journey from her homeland the Dominican Republic towards the United States, specifically New Jersey. Mami takes the long journey with her family and despite the positives of receiving a better life, ultimately this journey was in fact a negative experience for Mami because she faced a lot of hardships transitioning from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. For instance, one hardship she faces instantly when coming to New Jersey was trying to learn and understand the English language when nobody wants to help her and having to feel lonely the entire time being over in New Jersey. Although, Mami was pleased with the idea of coming at first and hearing about the laundry room. There were many more negatives experiences than positives for instance; Mami was unable to duplicate the words when she would ask the kids how to say it, “Her lips seemed to tug apart even the simplest vowels. That sounds horrible, I said” (Diaz 124). Additionally, her husband also did not contribute much to help her as well telling her “You don’t have to learn, he said. Besides, the average women can’t learn English. It is a difficult language to master, he said, first in Spanish and then in English” (Diaz 124). In fact, this

Lera Boroditsky, a professor at Stanford, introduces readers to the question of whether a person’s language can shape their thought processes and views of the world around them through her research conducted at Stanford and MIT. Boroditsky explores further into the questioning about a language’s influence in her article “Lost in Translation”. Boroditsky proves to an audience of broad audience of scholars and people interested in cultural psychology that a person’s language not only influences the way a person thinks but can change a person’s perception of the world and media around them. Lera Boroditsky, through her use of rhetorical questions, comparisons, and addressing the counterargument achieves her purpose of proving that language does

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.

Throughout generations cultural traditions have been passed down, alongside these traditions came language. The language of ancestors, which soon began to be molded by the tongue of newer generations, was inherited. Though language is an everlasting changing part of the world, it is a representation of one’s identity, not only in a cultural way but from an environmental standpoint as well. One’s identity is revealed through language from an environmental point of view because the world that one is surrounded with can cause them to have their own definitions of words, an accent, etc. With newer generations, comes newer forms of languages. Although these new generation 's’ way of speaking has come from elsewhere, there is a kind of shame that comes from this. Shame, because their ancestors spoke

Our identity is a place upon many attributes of a human being. Whether the person is someone who goes on promoting themselves to the world or not, and it shows how people communicate to others around them. Language is one of the main components that unveils the person’s identity in their everyday life, and they are many different ways to approach a person’s language. Relating to the article of Yiyun Li, “To Speak is to Blunder,” she knows two languages that has its positive and negative outcomes in her life. I to relate to her understanding of language, but a different view of what language means to me. This how a language connects towards those who can relate to other people and may or may not have a deeper relationship

Coming from a family that struggled to make ends meet and represented passion regardless of all the obstacles. Education was always important to my family when they first arrived in America. Being able to succeed in this outrageous world in which opportunities are limited to those who want to achieve something greater, is a barrier that can actually be broken regardless of where you come from; if you put your mind to it and honor the hard work being pursued, good outcomes can come from it. Both Malcolm X and Christine Marin overcame obstacles, which led them to exceed in their education and language barriers. In both having their similarities they also have their differences when it comes to how they were able to succeed in both education and

Language is used to convey a message as well as connect people to a particular culture or ethnicity he or she identifies with. People who share the same language share a bond and pass their history through language. In chapter one of The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom Joanne Kilgour Dowdy speak about growing up in Trinidad and her mother insisting on her speaking in the colonizer's language rather than her native Trinidadian language. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy felt as if her identity was being pushed to the side when she was forced to speak “Colonized English” when she was at school or around the social elite of her community, and felt ridiculed from her peers for speaking proper as if she was white or of the elite social class. Dowdy major concern was how to have the freedom to go back and forth from home, language to the public language without feeling judged from both sides of her

Amy found that same comfort but not until she was an adult. As she was speaking with her mother one day, she says “Not waste money that way.” (507). It dawned on her that it was so natural that not even her husband had noticed. Richard recalls a similar experience. He came home from school one day, his parents were talking. It wasn’t until after they had switched to English that he realized they had been speaking Spanish.

My personal literacy story might be considered as a short story. My literacy story stated very young with my mother and father reading me stories before I could read; some stories that were told to me were bible stories, Junie B Jones, Magic Tree house, and of course superhero comics.

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is the short story about the importance of language and how it is a key for communication. Tan emigrated from China to Oakland, California and she was a first generation of Asian-American. The author is very fascinated by the language and she believes that the language has the power of emotions, a visual image, a complex idea, and a simple truth. She also believes that there are many different types of “Englishes”.