Mother Tongue

In “Mother Tongue” by Tan there are a few details and choice words that she used that paints an image to the reader exactly what she is meaning to explain. One example of such detail is the use of the word “Englishes”. The use of the word here gives me an idea that she is talking about languages altogether but also the breakdown of a certain language and how it is used to communicate. The idea that Englishes could mean not just different languages but also a form of simplistic communication within 1 individual language.

Another example would be how she uses “broken” English to talk to her mother. This shows that even with all the education and reading that her mother had gone through, they still use such a simple and basic form of English to communicate and still communicate their thoughts vividly to each other.

A third example is how time can inevitably change how you talk to someone. In the text she mentions that she uses a phrase she would usually only say to her mother to her husband instead. This shows that her language when talking to her husband is usually formal but throughout time she had developed a simplistic way of talking to him.

Another detail that stood out to me was her mothers imperfect English somehow painting an image on Tan herself giving her the idea that her mother also had imperfect thoughts because she used her broken English to evoke a thought or portray emotion. This strikes me as odd because although her English may limit how she wants to display emotions or thoughts, it doesn’t or shouldn’t cause her to think her thoughts themselves are imperfect.

Tans story relates to me as I was learning Arabic as a child and my mother was not fluent with the English language. This basically put me in a position that closely resembles Tans. My mother would speak to me using simple words and practically broken Arabic so that I would understand her without being confused, even if it meant I wouldn’t fully understand or comprehend what she is wanting to say, and the say would go the other way around, where she spoke broken English to me and I would respond in a similar fashion. My experiences with learning to read and write in both languages was generally a tough situation to be in as I would read, write and speak in English in school but it would be practically the opposite at home. This made me choose one language over another and ultimately weakening my second language heavily. One thing that I don’t relate with from the text is Tans approach of thinking her mothers thoughts were imperfect as she did not portray her thoughts as vividly as she wanted. This was not the case for me as I understood that my mother was just trying to help me learn and make it easy so that I don’t go askew.