Amy Tan Mother Tongue Essay

In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, Tan speaks about multiple experiences she had in which she felt a disconnect between the English she spoke with her mother, versus the English she speaks with others. She begins with speaking about a talk she was having about her book, The Joy Luck Club, in which her mother was in the room. While giving her speech, she realized she was using a type of English she never uses around her mother, which complex language and phrases the common person, especially someone with “broken” English, might not be able to understand. Then again, while walking down the street with her mother, she noticed another time she was being careful of the type of English she was using. While Tan uses perfectly crafted language at her discussions about her novel, she responds to her mother with phrases like “Not waste money that way.” (Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue.) She then quoted a gangster who was adopted by her mother’s family, who then became more powerful, and richer, and came back to her mother’s wedding to pay his respects. His English was not perfect, and was what many would call “broken.”

She was able to read magazines and converse with her stockbroker, but when it comes to people outside of her family understanding her English, Tan’s friends understand about 50 percent of what her mother says. Some say they understand more, about 80 to 90 percent, and even some say “they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese.” (Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue.) Due to this, when she was young, her perception of her mother was limited because of the poor English she spoke. But Mrs. Tan also noticed that her imperfect English limited things for her- people in public treated her differently, gave her bad service, acted as if she was not