Education Narrative Discussion

Annotations to “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan

1. “Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all — all the Englishes I grew up with.” (pg.1, p2) In this paragraph, she talks about how powerful and beautiful languages can be. How she gives an example of “Englishes” is very relatable to me, from a person who speaks 3 languages it’s hard to communicate with my two families, it’s all about those different Englishes.
2. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, I.Q. tests, and the SAT.” The author here really is making the piece more intimate due to her writing about her past struggles and difficulties. But it’s true, I also do believe kids who have English as their first language from parents who also have English as their first language have an advantage to knowing the language better with more vocabulary. While in my household I grew up with 3 languages at the same time.
3. “my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as “watered down”; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that, I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure.” This is so true!!! I began to question when I speak with my different sides of the family, am I also speaking in the language watered down?
4. “I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: “So easy to read.”(pg.4) She accepted her mother’s English here, this whole piece is a narrative from the backstory to acceptance, and it’s something I would also like to include in my writing.
5. “Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience,”(pg.3). It’s true, here she talks about mathematics and its precision, I’m always doubting English and even my writing and choices. But here is where we apply “reading like a writer.’

Overall the reading has been a great example of reading like a writer, the education narrative. One important tool that I’ve been able to grasp would be to understand and participate in the writing, to completely understand what is going on and what you want to happen, what kind of reaction you are seeking from the readers. An active convention, to be more attentive to my previous writings, my day-to-day messages, and conversations all make me an author. It all comes together to who I am as a writer as a person who makes decisions. A good place to start with my educative narrative would be about something I’m familiar with. A topic or topics perhaps experiences I could write about that I know very well of.  As well capturing different writing styles from essays we’ve read in class could help, they all correlate to push you to develop your style, to get completely lost in your experiences, your tone in how you want your writing to be viewed, the languages, in particular, the form of English you want to write in.

There are always going to be questions and concerns about my writing, this is something new that I’ve never done before. Maybe I’ve already written in an educative narrative without knowing. A great example to help me with this type of writing would be annotations on educative writing, an example of how to phrase things, I would like to know what I’m doing wrong. What I need to improve on is always a big help when pointed out in writing. I want to write to my peers and would be concerned if they relate to me or not. Overall this educative writing is something I’m so excited about participating in.