Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan Response

Christine Mitchell

When reading Mother Tongue by Amy Tan the story really stood out to me, people probably never really realized how many people come from families where they speak broken English.  Amy Tan describes a girl whose family is from china and speaks broken English, English that’s always been normal to her. She also goes on to describes some of the struggles her mother faced due to her English being limited. I think many people who come from a different country definitely can relate to this story; I myself can relate growing up in a home where my mother first language was Spanish, at times it was difficult for my mom to express herself in English.

One thing that stood out to me was when the author stated “my mother’s expressive command  of English belies how much she actually understand,” even though her mother is unable to express herself well in English does not mean that she does not understand English well. My mother who is a Spanish woman at times her English does not come out to well, but that doesn’t mean her understanding of English is crippled by lack of communication. She’s able to understand what the news reporter are saying and is perfectly able to pick up a news paper or magazine and read it with no hesitation. I think that’s why when she heard people or even when she would refer to her mother’s English as “broken” or “fractured” she would cringe.

Something else that caught my attention is that due to the lack of her mothers English she would at times struggle in department stores or in restaurants and wouldn’t get the proper service. The author goes on to say “my mother has long realized the limitation of her English as well,” due to her mother limited English speaking at times she was force to make phone calls her mother was unable to make. I myself still do this till this very day for my mother, I still call credit card companies, or accompany my mom to doctors appointment and make sure she understands everything and she receive the proper service and care.

I think the author propose was to show the struggle that people face who are not from the U.S. when it comes to speaking English. Also to show people that you do not have to be ashamed of your way of speaking English there’s always room to expand your language.

Mother tongue by Amy Tan was very well written,  the humor throughout the story on her writing kept me engaged and interested and also I found Amy Tan as a very likable person in her  story. Even though personally when i started to read the first paragraph i was so not thrilled to read the rest but as i was reading along i was getting more and more hooked into it. i love the way she describes her relationship with her mom and also the struggle she had to go through because of her mom,s english with specific examples or memories in the story.  The thing  found most compelling about this story is it was very relatable because i been through more or less with my parents what she had go through with her mom. The purpose here was to connect with other asian american that can relate to this situation.

In this short story “Mother’ Tongue” I had analyzed how the author had explained their history with English and how the mother had also had a good experience with English .The author growing up trying to learn English was rough from talking to her mother with the English that she only knew raised outside of an English culture. People wouldn’t understand her mother as much as she could .The author had a timeframe of memories at a young age describing the way how she was taught English .

The practice of language will strengthen the power of your tongue.
Reading this passage will have you considering everything that has to do with how words are meant to be placed together to significantly get a point across. The way in which she starts the piece already had me considering to properly pick my words. the strategic transitions clearly shows she can’t turn it off. She continuously refers to her parents use of language and how it influenced her change and love of language.

Why is it such a big deal on the type of English you use to convey an idea or thought?

The type of English you use definitely helps the idea become concrete to the person you are trying to convince or the reader of the piece of literature. She also focuses on the environment and how much of an influence it can have on your the way you speak. Subsequently, language can only help you express your best thoughts and perspectives clearly.

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.

Ann-Marie Totaram

Mother Tongue

“Mother Tongue”   was first published in Threepenny Review in 1990.

Amy Tan is the daughter of immigrants which fled China’s Cultural Revolution during the late 1940’s.

Within this essay, Amy explains that language can be expressed in several ways. She states that language is power, language evokes emotions, visual image, ideas, and simple truth. But not everyone is set out to speak proper English. Language plays a big role in life. If you don’t speak proper no one would take you serious.

Amy’s mother is unable to speak proper. Whenever she says something everyone acts as if they don’t hear her or understands her. I personally don’t like the fact that no one bothers to help her. Just because she doesn’t know how to speak properly, individuals shouldn’t be rude to her and ignore her. Everywhere she goes, Amy has to accompany her. It was mentioned that at fifteen years old Amy had to make phone calls for her mother, and pretended it was her speaking. It’s nice that Amy looks out for her and helps her out.

As much as Amy brags about how much she admires language, and how much she helped her mother out it turns out that English really isn’t her best subject after all. Toward the ending of the essay, it was mentioned that Amy is better in math and she should look into accountant management rather then being a writer.