Mother Tongue and When I was PR -Odalys

Part 1: Mother Tongue 

“But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.” (Paragraph 6) 

This quote is important because it demonstrates how Tan applied the English her mother used to her educational journey. Tan illustrates how others perceived her mother’s English as “broken” but the knowledge behind it, is what helped her understand the English language more when it came to for example, analogies. One can conclude that Tan viewed her mother’s English as “simple”, and its simplicity is what helped her comprehend things and become the purpose to shift her writing as an author for readers like her mother. Moreover, it gave her the ability to translate her mother’s English to the English that is expected and commonly used in professional and educational settings. Lastly, one can visualize how Tan shifts between Englishes like a switch.  

Vocabulary Words 

1. Keenly  

“Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use” (Paragraph 3) 

Adverb; in a way that shows great mental perceptiveness or insight. 

2. Belies 

“You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands.” (Paragraph 6) 

Verb; to give a false impression. 

3. Wince 

“Like others, I have described it to people as ‘broken’ or ‘fractured’ English. But I wince when I say that” (Paragraph 7) 

Verb; to shrink back involuntarily (as from pain): flinch 

Part 2: When I Was Puerto Rican  

“‘Ino guan seven gray. I eight gray. I teeneyer.’ ‘You don’t speak English,’ he said. ‘You have to go to seventh grade while you’re learning’” (Paragraph 4-5) 

This quote is significant because it demonstrates how Santiago is not submissive despite the language barrier. Moreover, the reader can identify how Santiago has a healthy self-esteem in her educational journey because she knows she can do exceedingly well in 8^th grade despite not knowing English fully. One can perceive how she backs up her claims by having her report card on hand and pointing out all her A’s from her school in Puerto Rico. Lastly, Santiago is confident in her own ability to learn English withing a time limit to prove she belongs in 8^th grade and was being minimized. 

Vocabulary Words 

1. Uproariously  

“’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.” (Paragraph 22)  

Adjective; very loud, as sounds or utterances.  

2. Unruly 

“They were an unruly group” (Paragraph 23) 

Adjective; Not submissive or conforming to rule.  

3. Parsed 

“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.” (Paragraph 24)

Verb; to analyze (a sentence) in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc.