Category: Reading Response Mother Tongue/When I Was PR

Part 1:

“Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. 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, …

“Mothers Tongue”

“It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken”” This has significance in the “Mother’s Tongue” as even though the author is enthusiastic about english, it shows a level …

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 …

Part 1 – Mother Tongue

“Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have
described it to people as ‘broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It …

“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 …

A quote from Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is: “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” This quote emphasizes the internalized shame and discrimination that can result from …

PART 1 – “Mother Tongue” 

“Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me. I became an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med. I started …

PART 1 –“Mother Tongue”

“I have been thinking about all this lately, about my mother’s English, about achievement tests. Because lately I’ve been asked, as a writer, why there are not more Asian Americans represented in American literature. Why …