Category: Reading Response Mother Tongue and When I Was PR

“Fortunately, for reasons I won’t get into today, I later decided I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided upon was my mother, because these were stories about mothers.”  

I found

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Part 1

One significant quote from Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is: “I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language.” This quote is significant because it sets the tone for the essay and

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“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

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“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

“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

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“ I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts. Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing,

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Part 1

A quote that I found important is “I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language — the way it can evoke an emotion, a

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Part One: Mother Tongue

” I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person’s developing language skills are more influenced by peers.

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” She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker,
reads all of Shirley MacLaine’s books with ease–all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand. Yet some of
my friends tell me they

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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 mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue, Her language, as I

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