Essay On Mother Tongue

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The Melting Pot of Identities
Tiger Woods, a successful athlete who is among the greatest golfers, stated that “America is a melting pot, all races, cultures, and religious choices.” In “Blaxicans and other reinvented Americans” by Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez describes the blending of identities in America. Moreover, in “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, Tan discusses how English is not a single language but rather a language that is built off of many languages. Such as Amy’s mother when she speaks English, Amy Tan illustrates her language as “broken” English. Amy Tan explains how she has used multiple Englishes with different type of people. In “Mother Tongue” and “Blaxicans and other reinvented Americans”, both authors Amy Tan and Richard Rodriguez …show more content…
English is a language that has been made up of words from all around the world. Many immigrants come to America and mix their culture into the English language, thus creating different kinds of English. Throughout Amy Tan’s essay Tan shares with the reader her English, and the English she uses within her family.“ It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with” (Lines 28-30). When Amy Tan communicates with her family she uses her own kind of English, the kind that others will not be able to understand because it’s special and can only be understood by her family. Amy Tan has created this English by mixing in her culture with the words she uses. Although Amy Tan speaks perfect English, she still seems to use “broken” English when communicating with her mother and her husband. The language that she uses is sacred and private because it is one that only her and her family can understand because they only share it with each other. Immigrant that come to America learn to assimilate to the English language, but when they speak this language they mix in bits of their culture in order to feel closer to home and have a special intimacy with their now new
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