Mother tongue, When I was PR~ Andre

part 1-Mother Tongue by Amy tan

“Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mothers English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mothers tongue, Her language, as I hear it, it is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery”.This quote is very important because the author is expressing his thoughts based on how others react to her mother’s accent, but to her her mothers tongue helped her shape the way she saw things, bringing sense into the world

3 new vocabulary

Vivid: producing powerful feelings or strong, clear images in the mind. Sentence in the passage using the word vivid- Her language, as I hear it, is vivid.
Perception: a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression. “when I was growing up, my mothers “limited” English limited any perception of her

empirical: based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.“I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended to not understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her

Part 2 When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

Chapter 3 page 103- “Every day after school I go went to the library and took out as many children’s book as I was allowed. I figured that if the American children learned English through books, so could I, even if I was starting later”. This quote is very important because you can see how determined Esmeralda was to learn the English language her own ways.
3 new vocabulary

prepositional: adjective- formed with or functioning as a preposition. “Esmeralda” she called in a musical voice “would you please come up and mark the prepositional phrase”

outcasts: a person who has been rejected by society or a social group. “we were outcasts in a school where the smartest 8th graders were in 8-1 home room”

administration: the process or activity of running a business, organization, etc. “Miss brown’s was the learning disabled class, where the administration sent kids with all sorts of problems, none of which, from what I could see, had anything to do with their ability to learn but more with their willingness to do so”.