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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The essays, "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan and "Private Language, Public Language" by Richard Rodriguez are recollections of both authors’ personal encounters and difficulties with the gap that was created between their family and public languages. These two writers grew up in immigrant families, in which English was not their primary language. Consequently, they had a hard time accepting and understanding the difference between the two languages they had to speak at home and in the society. Both authors
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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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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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identify that type of English as either broken or fractured English. In the short story, “Mother Tongue” written by Amy Tan describes that these types of people are stereotyped and are judged by the way they speak. Tan explains that her mother speaks a different type of English, and that she receives judgement and mistreatment by this. Additionally, Tan expresses that she speaks differently to her mother than to other people. The central theme of this short story is that society is judgemental
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Summarizing and Responding: Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan, a writer, explains the power of the language and the kinds of English she uses in her essay “Mother Tongue”. Tan is a writer fluent in English who grew up in a family of immigrants; her mother is Chinese. In one of her speeches, using the formal English. When she sees that his mother was sitting among people whose she has never used the professional English Tan realized that she uses two kinds in her life: the professional, for work;
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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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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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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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The essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. The author tells us how the power of language has played a major role in her life. Tan describes her observation and thoughts about the use of the English language and the perceptions of others regarding to non-English speakers. She describes the pain and shame she felt while observing the negative reactions her mother would receive from others because her “broken” English was different from everyone else. Therefore, she would get ridiculed, people did not take
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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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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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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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Immigrants have a significant impact on America. The United States is referred to as a “melting pot” because there are so many different cultures and backgrounds that came into our country. Immigrants have helped shape American culture/identity by implementing their traditions and bringing awareness to society. In the article “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” by Richard Rodriguez illustrates the idea that no matter your background, you choose who to be. Rodriguez states, “As an American
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Difference is what define the world around. People tend to oppress the unfamiliar ones. Whether a little contrast of two colors or a comparison of their nations, the diversity shapes the identities of people. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, both have similar subject as they both discussed how different forms of the same language are recognized in society. They emphasize the fact that a person can unconsciously develop different ideas through a language
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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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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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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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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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