Observations:
I noticed that the whole story is based on Amy’s mother English. I assume that’s the reason of the title “Mother Tongue” which is not complete but gives us an idea what she is trying to say.
Amy tan used metaphor for example “Language is the tool of my trade” she meant that English is fundamental in his profession.
She also used irony: “impeccable broken English” how something that is not complete can be impeccable?
She used her mother as an example to point out why there are not so many Asian American writers.
Amy described her mother’s English as a broken language, because her mother could not speak complete sentences in English.
She has memories about her mother limited English. She gave many examples of the way her mother express herself.
She remembers when she had to help her mother to communicate with others.
Amy’s strategy to write was pretending she was writing for her mother, so she could express herself better and makes it easier for the reader.
Amy remarked that she was embarrassed of her mother’s English.
Amy’s backgrounds are Chinese.
I felt compelling when Amy Tan said that when she was a teenager used to help her mother with the phone calls. Also because she described her mother as a limited English speaker, in my case would be my father. His English is way complicated than mine to understand, and most of the times he asks me to do phone calls in order to find out information for the checks and the working days.
My question about the text is the following; how is her mother’s English now days?
She wrote this book because she had been questioned about why others Asian-American are not involved into American literature. The author used her personal experience with her mother and used her as an example. She explains that her mother is able to understand perfect English but not to transmit her feeling and exact questions or arguments in English speech. I think her purpose was to remark the importance of speech expression in order to communicate with others, also to motivate immigrant families to learn the English language.
