Not all people whose English as a second language speak it in the same way. This argument made by Amy Tan in the story “Mother Tongue”. In the essay, she successfully uses all three of rhetorical styles such as logos, ethos, and pathos. Tan also balances each part of the rhetorical triangle very effective and thoughtful essay. First of all, the author uses logos and reasoning in her essay. An example is when she explains how her mother would have her call to ask for information, and people in department stores, banks, and restaurants would not take her mother seriously. This essay might well be aimed at people who have to take care of their parents as if they are exchanging roles with parents. At a young age, Amy had to handle situations. …show more content…
She thinks the standardized tests are not able to accurately determine a person’s intelligence. It is unfair because people have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence. As Tan was growing up, her speech and what she was taught by her family affected her life. Throughout the story, she describes her relationship with her mother, who speaks “broken” English. Furthermore, family environment affected her results at school. Many other Asians in the U.S are also have suffered the similar problem, and have teachers "who are steering them away from writing and into math and science". Overall, Amy Tan wants to say that just because someone cannot speak English perfectly, it does not mean in anyways else would make them less intelligent than other people who are born in this country, who understand and speak English fluently. It is like a quote "We are like a snowflake, all different in our own beautiful way." We all have similarities but our differences help define us. However, the author's mother was judged by her language. She also saw her mother was disrespected because of her incorrect grammar and wrong use of words. Through the essay, Tan wanted to send a powerful message of how we ought to view people by their beautiful side and not by their shortcomings. Everyone has a message to say, it may be different from yours and it
In James Baldwin’s essay, Notes of A Native Son, he clearly makes the point that hate destroys. Over the course of the essay, James Baldwin uses inductive reasoning by stating examples of how terrible it was growing up as a black man in the 1950’s, including how he almost got beat up when he was with a friend, how he was refused service at a restaurant, and eventually, the violent mob that he encountered. He states during his essay, “hatred itself became an exhaustive and self-destructive force” to tell his audience about his relationship with hatred. This organizational pattern of providing evidence and then making a conclusion is the most effective method for Baldwin because his audience should be surprised about what Baldwin learned. The knowledge that
In school again was the second time she faced an obstacle that stems from her race. This was known as opposition. It seems that educational facilities are the brunt of her problems. “At Pan American University, I and all Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents”.
Amy Tan's goal has changed slightly. While the Author wants to show the effect language has on one's daily life and how we perceive others who are different, she also wants to show how the language barrier affects our society overall. The first key point I identified after active reading was the sentence beneath the title. "Don't judge a book by its over, or intelligence by her English".
There are many people who think high of Asian American students to be smart or a genius. As this is one of the most common stereotypes in their life experience being Asian American, isn’t always true, but it’s based on a the “Model Minority” myth. One of the biggest negative impacted on them is the level of education, having them be expected of being smart successful in school, and to be good at math. “The myth hurt Asain Americans, a rapidly growing population in American schools. They mask the many problem Asian student encounter in school and society”(Zhao,339) it can be shown how society and schools don’t cleary see what they are encountering.
In her writing, Tan often describes her experiences as the child of Chinese immigrants, growing up in northern California and living in American culture. Tan explains how she has learned to embrace the many Englishes her mother speaks and how her background has also caused her to have different Englishes. While others classify her mother's English as "broken" she finds no fault in it. In Tan's view, just because something is broken does not necessarily mean that it is in need of fixing. In her essay, author Amy Tan addresses the connections between languages and cultures in describing the different Englishes her mother uses.
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. Throughout the entirety of her speech, Lyiscott changes up her vocal patterns and dialects so that the audience can understand first hand what each of these dialects are. When she talks about her father, Lyiscott uses her native tongue, when she talks to her fellow neighbors and close friends she switches it up to a more urbanized dialect, and when she is in school she masks the other two dialects with a professional sounding language.
She struggles occasionally from day to day tasks. Since Tan’s mother English was poor, she tends to ask Tan for help “...she used to have me call people and the phone and pretend I was she” (300). Tan’s mother would tell Tan to pretend to be her to complain, ask for more information, and even
A twelve year old boy a world away from his parents once wrote in a letter to his parents: “And I have nothing to comfort me, nor is there nothing to be gotten here but sickness and death.” This child was Richard Frethorne, and in “Letter to Father and Mother,” he communicates his desperation caused by the new world’s merciless environment to his parents to persuade them to send food and pay off his accumulated debts from the journey. He accomplishes this with deliberate word choice and allusions to the bible to appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos. Frethorne uses diction, imagery, and facts to create a letter to his parents which aims to garner sympathy for his state of life and to persuade them to send food and pay off his debts.
Rhetorical Precis #4: “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan 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.
While reading the story, you can tell in the narrators’ tone that she feels rejected and excluded. She is not happy and I’m sure, just like her family, she wonders “why her?” She is rejected and never accepted for who she really is. She is different. She’s not like anyone else
Tan noted that in general, Asian Americans perform better on math and science achievement exams than on English ones. The low representation could be the result of Asian American students who use broken or limited English being steered away from writing into math and science. Similarly, in “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María”, stereotypes and popular portrayals of Latina women as domestics or waitresses have partially led to the denial of opportunities for upward mobility among Latinas in the professions. Whether misrepresentations are brought on by the analysis of someone’s appearance or their linguistic abilities, those stereotypes and misjudgments can hinder the potential for growth and success of an individual within their
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. 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.
Which Mother Is Better Amy’s Mother Or Amy Chua 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”.
Tan was in shame and pain when she would feel that people were giving her mother a negative reaction. As Tan grew older she realized that it wasn’t a big deal that her mother’s English was not that well. She got used to it because she had been talking to her for years using “Broken English” and when her mother was around
This quote from the narrative showed the author 's realization of the difference in the way that she speaks in different environments. Later Amy grasped that she uses the same type of English with her husband, but she comprehended that it was the language of family talk or the language she grew up with. Tan starts to tell her mother 's story about the gangster that wanted her mother family to adopt him. She states, "You should know that my mother 's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands" (Tan 1). This part of the narrative inserts that her mother knew what she was talking about even though she spoke improper English.