Essay about Amy Tan's Mother Tongue

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ENG 100 Assign. 03 Amy Tan: Mother Tongue (p397-p402)
When I moved to Seychelles in 2006 to work for the local government there, my biggest concern was that my knowledge of the English language would not be adequate to be a successful teacher. When it came to the subject itself I felt confident enough I had the necessary skills. I had been teaching science for 6 years and was familiar with the program that I was going to instruct. Feeling a bit scared I entered the classroom the first day of the school year.
To my surprise I soon discovered that what I considered to be my ‘limited’ knowledge of English was in fact an advantage to my teaching. Students came to me and explained that they liked it so much I didn’t use all these difficult words in class.
It made me think back of the time when I was going to university, and how often I had gotten frustrated with professors explaining things using all these fancy words. When I was sitting there I felt sort of stupid, not understanding what clearly had to be something of great value and importance.
It was later during my studies I realised that being a good teacher isn’t about using fancy words, but often involves simplifying things. How can you expect somebody who is trying to comprehend something that is new to him, to grasp the meaning of it all if you make it even harder by using complicated structured sentences or words that are hardly used in an everyday conversation?
When I read Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, I had to think

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In Amy Tan's article "Mother Tongue," some of the main points were how people are treated who have broken English, the language barriers, and limited resources and how to overcome such obstacles. It also deals with the emotions associated with Amy Tan, as a young child having to pretend to be her mother, just because her mother was not being taken seriously. Tan's article reminds me of how it feels to learn another language, such as Russian for myself. While I began learning Russian, I have dealt…

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28, 2013 The purpose and power of Language Amy Tan was born of February 19 1952 in Oakland, California. To two parents that are Chinese immigrants. She went San Jose State University and University of California at Berkeley. She finished her schooling and became a very successful American writer of many pieces of literature including Mother Tongue and The Joy Luck Club, which was written in the year 1989. Based on Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” it is evident that language has an effect on our lives…

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Mother Tongue by Amy Tan Amy Tan's Mother Tongue is highlighting the difference in the many forms of a language used, not just by different individuals, but also by the same person when speaking to a different audience. I believe she is validating the individual usage of a language on the basis of it's expression and intent, not merely on grammatical correctness or grasp of vocabulary. If language is expressing properly to the intended audience, it is not to be considered lesser even if it is what…

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Well-known novelist, Amy Tan, describes in her essay, Mother Tongue, how her language changes when talking with different people, as well as her mother’s “broken” English; therefore, Tan delivers her message about her language and identity. Tan’s purpose is to convey the idea that “the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child” (Zapico, 32). The language spoken in the family is always important to…

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In Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”, the author explores the implications the English language imposes on its speakers, in particular those who speak a broken English. Tan asserts her findings by discussing her own mother’s speech and how it compares to not only hers but society's. She recognizes that her speech is different from her mother's and notes how she herself often manipulates the english language depending on the audience she is communicating with. While speaking to a literary-based group she…

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Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” utilizes anecdotes, pathos, and parallelism to convey her attitude towards her mother and her “broken” English. Anecdotes were employed as a way to express Tan’s views on her mother and her struggles with English. It was used to depict how her sentiments of her mother changed throughout specific eras of her life. For one anecdote, she narrates the time when her mother needed teenage Tan to call stockbroker so her problems would be taken seriously. They eventually visited…

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Imagine having to always speak for your mother because her English broken or being so poor that you have to dig in the garbage for a meal. In The Glass Castle by author Jeannette Walls, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, “Going Gangsta Choosin Cholita” by Neil Bernstein, and “Vanity Fair” by Nancy Jo Sales all show how childhood experiences can shape an individual into someone who they would be for the rest of their lives. Jeannette Walls and Amy Tan overcome the negative things that happened in their lives…

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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…

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