I have to agree with what Ellen Carillo is saying. I didn’t realize it back then but now reading about it, really makes me thing about how things are done in school and how we are told to read and accept what we were reading. We weren’t told to read and apply our knowledge or experience on the topic of the reading. Knowing this now kind of makes me upset. I don’t like telling my opinions on things and I wonder if what we were thought in school has something to do with it. A way that I like to explain the difference between knowledge and understanding is that knowledge is what you know, what you can remember or memorize. Weird facts that for some reason you know, while understanding is when you are able to explain and realize what something means. What causes something to happen a certain way. Knowing the difference between knowledge and understanding is important because knowledge is grader than understanding but there is no point on knowing all these things if you aren’t able to understand them.
My experience with English has been similar to Tan’s, my mom and my stepdad don’t really know English so they usually ask me or my sister to call people or to talk for them when English is involved and they aren’t able to represent themselves. I do believe that I talk in different English depending on who I am with or who am I talking to. When I’m home with my family English is not really spoken but when it is spoken is “broken” English because that’s the way my parents talk English. So when she says “It has become our language of intimacy, a difference sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with.” I relate to it because again I talk a whole different English when I’m with my family.
Of course it’s not “broken”! That’s Amy Tan’s whole point, I think. It’s always interesting to me how many people relate to what she wrote. I also think not being allowed to have our own opinions in school absolutely discourage us from voicing our opinions at all. Like we’re going to make a mistake just because we use our brains.
Truth? I love memorizing weird facts. Know why? Because sometimes something comes up and it’s that weird fact that helps me understand something better! They do need to work together (knowing and understanding). Nice comments!