To understand the reading, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, I put myself into the author's shoes to see where the author was coming from. Learning a different language is hard to do if you are not familiar with it. People need to understand that no one is going to fluent in any language that they never spoken in before. Have respect for those of different languages. The article's theme of Mother Tongue is seeing how different people are and that it is okay to be different because everyone needs to experience
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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
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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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For years, the language barrier has been a stopping force of the world coming together as a whole. Deborah Tannen, “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently” and Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue” both talk about language barriers that are present in society. Today’s society proposes many language barriers. Of these language barriers, two prominent illustrations would be male and female versus immigrant and citizen barriers. Male and female differ in the way they communicate by slang usage and
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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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Be proud of your mother tongue How do you pronounce the word ‘garage’? I bet you all think you do, especially if you are reading this on the other side of the pond, where this article is published and read by my country people. But wait till you have to speak perfect English all day every day to a bunch of teenagers who think every mispronunciation you make necessitates a burst of mirth. After years of dealing with being told that when I say ‘thought’ it sounds like ‘taught’, I devised a way of
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interpret the true meaning in a piece. In general, tones set the mood for poetry. Analyzing Czelaws Milosz’s “My Faithful Mother Tongue” and James Arlington’s wright is “Lying in A Hammock”, we discover that one of the similarities between both poems is that, both deal with voice and identity. Despite this, each piece has a different tone. In Czeslaw Milosz “My faithful Mother tongue”, we are able to imagine and explore the speaker’s world in the 1983, being an immigrant on exile in postwar United
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Tino Alvarez Diverse Identities Professor Chuck Hill 3/9/15 Mother Tongue The reading Mother Tongue was a very interesting story of a writer Amy Tan and her experiences as a young professional getting in the field of short story writing. She begins by giving a little personal story on how she became to love the English language and why she wanted to pursue what she might believe be her weakest subject. Amy loves the power language and how it can evoke emotion, visual image
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I believe the author of “Mother Tongue” makes a clear and concise argument about how some Asian-Americans English can disrupt the flow of expressing themselves when conducting casual conversations and normal everyday business transactions with the limited English they possess. This admission is made by the author when talking about her own mother's “broken” English. The author also pointed out that creative writing programs are much needed in the Asian-American communities (Tan 21-23). With my distinctive
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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
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A Literary Analysis on “Mother Tongue” By Demetria Martinez “His nation chewed him up and spat him out like a pinon shell, and when he emerged from an airplane one late afternoon, I knew I would one day make love with him” (Martinez, 3). And so it starts, the story of a nineteen year old Mexican- American girl named Mary (Maria; as he only chooses to call her), who helps out and eventually falls in love with Jose Luis Alegria, a Salvadoran refugee. Martínez's story of María is told against
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_UNESCO Education Position Paper_ 2003 Current educational decisions makers are faced with a great difficulty when it comes to deciding on languages, schooling and the curriculum. On one hand there are strong educational arguments in favor of mother tongue/first language use for instruction purposes, but on the other hand there is a need for balance between the use of local languages in learning and the access to global languages for communication through education. The educational systems try to
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'Search for my tongue' The poet feels she has lost an important part of herself that she needs to recover to feel herself again. 'lost the first one, the mother tongue, and could not really know the other' The original language is associated with being nurturing, protecting, loving. The second language is seen to be alien. The poet feels it is not possible to fully understand or become completely part of another culture. 'if you lived in a place you had to/speak a foreign tongue' There is a suggestion
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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. Language defines the type of person I am generally and it has had an effect on my choices as well as my lifestyle. Language has become my way of seeing life in a different perspective. In “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan discusses the many ways in which the language that she was
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Sara Jones 28 March 2011 Professor Scott Aclt 052 Getting through the English Language: My Response Essay to Mother Tongue The fiction essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is just one of her short stories that were written by this expressive writer. This reading selection explains the life of the author from a young child until now as an accomplished Chinese-American writer. Even though there are different nationalities of immigrants in America. It shows that we all have the same problems, which
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Thuy Tran Ms. Frey – Writing 115 Reader Response 5 October 27, 2009 Mother Tongue As a writer, the language is the creative tool, the way they are using the language is very necessary for their job. In the essay “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan tells about how language influenced her life while growing up. As she was wondering in her essay, “Why are there few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering?” (165). I try to figure out the answer
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Based The article “Mother Tongue” has been written by Amy Tan and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” has been written by Gloria Anzaldua. Both of these articles are focusing on the struggles associated with language on the basis of cultural differences. The main idea that we get from the story ‘Mother Tongue’ is that language is not only a way of communication but it also has a sociological value that tells us about the worth of an individual. In the second story ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldua is talking
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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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Karyn Pham Professor Gray English 103 6 April 2014 Essay 4 In essays “Living in Spanish” by Marjorie Agosín and “Mothers Tongue” by Amy Tan, the narrators both experience the struggle of language and its barriers in America. In their essays, they explain that having the capability to speak proper English and assimilate themselves to American customs were ways of surviving in the US. Although there were many obstacles and challenges faced when adapting to America, they did not dismiss their true
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Yewei Li RHET 110N 9.23.2014 Mother Tongue Do you judge and categorize people by their spoken language? I think the answer would be we are all unsure. People with limited English will sometimes get into trouble. When people could speak a language fluently, the others may not understand them. Maybe, some people with warm-heart will try their best to help them, or maybe some people will ignore them. This is because the others are not familiar with their limited English, and are from a different culture
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bilingual children start to speak later than monolingual children? There is no evidence that bilingual children learn to speak later. Some children, whether bilingual or monolingual, learn to speak later than others. Should parents speak their mother tongue at home? Yes. If children know their first language well, it will help them learn English. When they understand an idea in their first language (such as numbers or colours), they easily pick up the English word that means the same thing. They also
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It is difficult for many immigrants to adjust to a new culture. These changes can either lead to a positive or negative affect depending on the person. In “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, both have different and similar immigrant experience in America. They describe how the American culture has affected them in a positive and negative way. Some immigrants have a sense of belonging in order to adjust to a new culture. Amy Tan describes in her
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from buildings. The three plants that have been introduced in Paharpur Business Centre are the Areca Palm, Mother-in-law’s tongue and Money Plant; 1200 plants are being used there for a 20 year old 55000 ft2 building. The Areca Palm transforms CO2 into oxygen, it grows in hydroponics, 4 plants are needed per person and it should be moved outdoors every 3 or 4 months. Mother-in-law’s tongue transforms CO2 into oxygen at night and between 6 or 8 plants are needed per person. The Money Plant grows in
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flashcards, alphabet cards and letter formation worksheets. Target learner profile This series is aimed at students who have had little or no formal education, may be unfamiliar with the Roman script and may be unable to read or write in their mother tongue. Many will be learning English in order to comply with Home Office regulations. They may be in Britain to be with their spouse or they may be working alongside other people of the same nationality. Others will be learning English prior to coming
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Purple Hibiscus Analytical Paragraph In the book Purple Hibiscus written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi Kambili, a young girl, her brother Jaja and their mother must endure abuse by their father. Their father, Papa, is immune of accusations made against him because of his high religious and financial influence in the community. Fortunately, Kambili and Jaja visit their independent aunt whose household is very different from their own. This visit helps them fight against Papa’s control, a very prominent
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imagery. In her 1990 The Threepenny Review magazine essay “Mother Tongue,” author Amy Tan describes the effects of her mother’s broken English and how it helped her shape the way she saw things. Unlike Tan, both my parents were well educated and spoke English as our primary language. I was able to read and write well in English; but as time went on, I began to use slang and discontinued studying the English language. In “Mother Tongue,” Tan describes her mother’s English as the language “that
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doors and hearts to speakers of other languages, we wouldn’t be very gracious hosts as law-abiding American citizens! We, the people of the United States have a duty to ask ourselves: “If the United States has gotten by without an official tongue for two hundred years, why does it needone now?” My parents came to the Americas for better opportunity and to unite with family in a better environment. I was the only one in my immediate family to be born American, and the differences seem
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Globalisation Introduction Globalisation represents freedom and free trade. It provides opportunities for widening international exchanges and strengthening mutual understanding between nations. However, the opportunities associate with the challenges for environment, such as climate change. This essay will discuss It will examine the benefits offered in the areas of increasing employment and in the field of multiculturalism, as well as the contradictions caused by the culture shock and unfair labor
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During this scene, Hamlet treats his mother Gertrude very harshly and gets physical with her, after this Hamlet believes he heard Claudius spying on them so without looking he thrusts his sword in the tapestry and kills Polonius. With Gertrude all upset about the death of Polonius, Hamlet starts shaming her for marrying Claudius. After verbally assaulting his mother Gertrude, King Hamlet's ghost appears to Hamlet. This scene is slightly altered in the
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SINGAPORE'S EFFORTS TO FOSTER RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS HARMONY A FACTSHEET BY NEXUS Singapore's racial and religious harmony did not come about by accident or chance. Over the years, we have taken sustained efforts to build understanding, tolerance, sensitivity and trust among the different races living in Singapore. This factsheet gives an overview of these efforts. NE Facilitators may wish to use the information in this factsheet when a suitable occasion presents itself during interactions with your
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