part 1:
Mother Tongue paragraph 8:
“I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.
This quote from Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” is important because it emphasizes the issue of language and identity. Tan shows how her relationship with her mother was impacted by her status as an immigrant with little to no knowledge of English. The passage demonstrates how, despite her mother’s fluency in many languages, Tan’s small understanding of her mother’s language abilities made her lack respect for her mother’s intelligence. This section describes the struggles with identification and assimilation as well as the assumptions and biases that people and society generally hold towards those who are considered different. Her personal experiences influence Tan’s writing and linguistic research.
3 new vocabulary words:
Nascent: Adjective – just coming into existence.
Sentence: Here’s an example from the first draft of a story that later made its way into The Joy Luck Club, but without this line: “That was my mental quandary in its nascent state.” A terrible line, which I can barely pronounce.
Guise: Noun – an external form, appearance, or manner of presentation, typically concealing the true nature of something.
“In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her.”
Semantic: Noun – of, relating to, or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols
“The same was true with word analogies, pairs of words in which you were supposed to find some sort of logical, semantic relationship — for example, ‘Sunset is to nightfall as is to.’
Part 2:
When I was Puerto Rican page 102 line 22:
“I walked down the black-tiled hallway, past many doors that were half
glass, each one labeled with a room number in neat black lettering. Other
students stared at me, tried to get my attention, or pointedly ignored me.
I kept walking as if I knew where I was going, heading for the sign that
said stairs with an arrow pointing up. When I reached the end of the hall
and looked back, Mami was still standing at the front door watching me,
a worried expression on her face.” –“All of a sudden, I was afraid that I was about to make a fool of myself and end up in seventh grade in the middle of the school year.”
This is a significant part of “When I Was Puerto Rican.” It emphasizes the difficulties she encountered as a young immigrant from rural Puerto Rico attempting to make her way through the American educational system. A clash of cultures is produced by the dramatic contrast between her more traditional upbringing in Puerto Rico and the strange environment of the school. The hallway’s description, with its half-glass doors and black text, shows the feeling of unease and supports the meaning that the author is an outsider in this environment. The fact that the other students are either staring, ignoring her, or attempting to grab her attention only emphasizes how uncomfortable and disconnected she feels. The chapter also highlights the bond between the author and her mother, who is anxious as she watches their shared anxiety and fear of the future. It also reveals her own issues with cultural appropriation and identity, as well as the value of family support through times of change.
3 new vocabulary words:
Uproariously: Adjective – provoking loud laughter; very funny
“What have I done?” I kicked myself with the back of my right shoe, much to the surprise of the fellow walking behind me, who laughed uproariously, as if I had meant it as a joke.”
Churning: Verb – move or cause to move about vigorously.
“I started up the stairs, my stomach churning into tight knots”
Parsed: Verb – to describe grammatically, identifying the part of speech, inflectional form, syntactic function, etc.
“Half of them never showed up, or, when they did, they slept through the lesson or nodded off in the middle of Miss Brown’s carefully parsed sentences.”
