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Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary

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The essay, "Mother Tongue", by Amy Tan, is about the effect that "broken" English can have on people. In this case it is the authors mother. Throughout the essay Tan speaks about the different types of English she uses. What many would consider improper English is the type of English she uses to talk with her mother and family. When she is speaking to others who aren't her family speaks more formally than she normally would.
Tan's mother's first language is Chinese and her second language is English. While Tan is giving a speech about a her book, "The Joy Club," she realizes the types of English she uses because her mother was in the audience, and her mother had never heard her speak so formally before nor had she ever spoken so formally in front of her mother. She also notices they types of English she uses a second time, when she out with her mother and her husband. Tan explains this type of English she uses with her family as intimate and something she grew up with.
Tan explains that both her and her mother realize her mothers limitations, due to her English. Some don’t take her mother seriously or they ignore her. So Tan would have to call people on the phone and pretend that she was her mother. Tan once had to call her mother's stockbroker, another time she had to speak to her mothers doctor because they weren't paying attention to a …show more content…

She thinks that the language spoken at home plays a role in shaping the language of a child. Tan notices very stereotypical things that are expected from people who come from immigrant families with limited English. For example, Tan notices that Asian students do noticeably better on math tests than English. She also notices that there aren't many Asian American students who take creative writing classes but, preferably take math and science classes. Tan wonders that if its because teachers steer them away from

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“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is primarily an autobiographical piece about her experiences growing up in a household that chiefly spoke “broken” English, and a reflection on how this gave her a unique perspective on the transformative properties of language. Yet, it is no way an academic analysis, a deliberate choice, Tan even includes a short disclaimer in the beginning concerning this, and the excerpts she includes come from her own background, her personal observations, something which I found quite refreshing. As someone who comes from a mixed family and identifies as Asian-American, I related a great deal to her upbringing, and in many instances down to the exact circumstance. For example, she details an incident in which she

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In her essay, “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan notes the many impacts that her adapted way to verbalize has affected her life. She develops her claim by first narrating the peak of her realization, in which she became aware of her speaking with other people using fragment English inherited from her immigrant mother and then by illustrating scenarios where her friends would describe her mother’s English as “broken” or “fractured.” Furthermore, Tan claims that her mother’s English had an effect on her possibilities in life by providing examples of basic English test sentences that she found difficult to comprehend in comparison to the rest of her peers. Thus, she however concludes that despite how challenging it may be to deal with this language restriction,

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In this article, Tan 's argue that her mother 's "Broken English" has caused unfairness, disinterest, and limitations throughout their life. Tan 's mother was discriminated a lot throughout her life, all because of her "Broken English". Growing up speaking "Broken English" has caused Tan 's mother to be treated unfairly. For example, in one body paragraph, Tan talks about her mother having her to call people on the phone pretending to be her.

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In the short story, Tan talks her story of the English she speaks, and how much people her around can change the way you converse. For example, at home, she speaks to her mother in a “broken” English so her mother can understand the conversation. When she is talking to people she works with, she uses

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Some information about the author: She was born in China and studied in a local Chinese school for a few years before switching to an International school. It provided her the chance to experience first hand the real meaning behind "broken English", and understand how non-standard varieties of English have their own rules and shape a community 's sense of identity. In this article, she shares her views on Amy Tan 's "Mother Tongue" and talks about the power of language. I was reading Amy Tan 's "Mother Tongue" when I came across the idea of language being "fractured and broken". She gave examples of how her mother’s limited English caused her to be given poor service at department stores, banks and restaurants.

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In her writing, Tan often describes her experiences as the child of Chinese immigrants, growing up in northern California and living in American culture. Tan explains how she has learned to embrace the many Englishes her mother speaks and how her background has also caused her to have different Englishes. While others classify her mother's English as "broken" she finds no fault in it. In Tan's view, just because something is broken does not necessarily mean that it is in need of fixing. In her essay, author Amy Tan addresses the connections between languages and cultures in describing the different Englishes her mother uses.

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Summary of "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan In "Mother Tongue, Amy Tan writes about how her mother 's broken English affects her life. She begins this narrative essay by talking about the day she became aware of the different forms of English that she was using at home and during formal events. Amy says, "The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her" (Tan 1).

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When she was around others she would talk differently than how she talks with her mother. “…all the forms of Standard English that I had learned in school and through book, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother” (118). Throughout her story she refers to the English her mother speaks as “Broken English” because her mother would say sentences like “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived” (119). Her mother didn’t have much difficulty understanding or reading English. When Tan was younger, she would feel embarrassed when her mother would speak because many people couldn’t understand her well.

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I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, ‘This is Mrs. Tan’”(10). This shows how her mother affected her childhood in the way that she even had to talk for her so that other people would understand and take her seriously. The way Tan includes this quote shows that as a child she had to help her mom in many major ways. With this quote Tan affects the audience in the way that just because she was ashamed of her mother doesn’t mean that she didn’t care for her and that other people should do the same. “My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment, to find out about a benign brain tumor a CAT scan had revealed a month ago.

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The difference in language leads to miscommunication but the overlying consequence of it is lack of understanding and empathy for one another which leads to conflict. “Language takes on a metonymic relation to culture in Tan's portrayal of the gap between the mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club.” (Hamilton). The language barriers between the daughters and the mothers create the cultural barriers. Language barriers emphasize and directly influences cultural barriers.

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In “Mother Tongue” Tan uses her mother as an example of how the English language should not affect one’s self worth. Tan’s mother spoke English but not well enough for people to think that her dignity was high. “You should know that my mother’s expressive command of

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In Amy Tan‘s essay “Mother Tongue” (1999), she describes her life with her mother in America and how the broken speech of her mother has had an influence on her life. Amy Tan talks about the different “Englishes" she speaks to communicate with different people. Also, she tells us about her love for English and how she becomes a famous writer in America. In her essay she tries to shows us that language, culture, and education shapes us into who we are and the more you study English the more you learn and English will change your life a lot.

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