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Amy tan personal essay
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What she previously thought was “bad” English is merely a language variation, each variation with its own history and culture. Lanehart now believes these variations need to be celebrated and that they don't always need to be corrected. The more Lanehart learned, the more she believed that English can vary as long as we can all understand each other. Lanehart decides she doesn’t want to correct people anymore.
The power of language We all have some form of language limitations, no matter where we come from and what our background is. “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua both share similar themes in their stories that demonstrate how they both deal with how different forms of the same language are portrayed in society. In both stories they speak about what society declares the right way of speech and having to face prejudgment, the two authors share their personal experiences of how they’ve dealt with it.
Rhetorical Precis #4: “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan Amy Tan’s purpose in her article “Mother Tongue” is to show the influence of her mother’s style of english. She also relates this to a more broad topic of the idea that there are many different types of english that people speak that are tailored to whoever they are speaking to. She begins this piece by stating plainly that she is not an english scholar. Instead of decreasing her credibility it actually increases it and paints this piece as a more personal set of observations rather than a bland overview of the entire language.
Introduction A 306-page autobiography entitled “Chasing the Devil,” recounts Sheriff David Reichert search for the Green River killer from 1972 to 2001. The book races awareness to prevent young woman from being caught up in a life of desperation and danger on streets. It manifest how passionate David Reichert is on being a competitor and a protector detective. Thus, after 20 years of playing a cat-and-mouse game to the Green River killer justice was served.
Class ESL 5 In the article, ”My English” by Julia Alvarez, the author wrote about her experience as she learn to speak English. Spanish was her mother tongue and struggled to speak English in the early phases. She thought that English was a form of Spanish, as there are different dialects in Spanish. Her parents spoke English when they didn’t want her and her siblings to know what was going on.
For numerous amounts of people, with English being their second language, they have been described as having "Broken English". " Broken English" refers to a poorly spoken or ill-written version of the English language. One article called "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan discusses the effects of growing up with a Chinese mother who has "Broken English". In fact, Tan deliberates about the limitations and criticism of growing up with her mother. Although Tan speaks articulate English, she still can comprehend with her mother 's "Broken English".
The Skin That We Speak The way a person speaks is a direct link to a person’s culture and the environment which he or she was raised in. A person’s language, skin color as well as economic status influences the way he or she is perceived by others. Lisa Delpit and eleven other educators provide different viewpoints on how language from students of different cultures, ethnicity, and even economic status can be misinterpreted due to slang and dialect or nonstandard English by the teachers as well as his or her own peers. The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom by Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, who collected essays from a diverse group of educators and scholars to reflect on the issue of language
Being an immigrant from Nigeria was initially a challenge when I first moved to America. I generally speak quite fast, but I soon realize that some Americans could not understand my English and might misinterpret me. I had to talk slower in order to pass the right messages across. Below are two examples of situations when I misinterpreted a message and when my message was misinterpreted.
She struggles occasionally from day to day tasks. Since Tan’s mother English was poor, she tends to ask Tan for help “...she used to have me call people and the phone and pretend I was she” (300). Tan’s mother would tell Tan to pretend to be her to complain, ask for more information, and even
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.
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).
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.
Writer and novelist Amy Tan in her essay “Mother Tongue”, narrates that speaking “broken” or “fractured” English is not a bad thing. Tan’s purpose is to show the readers her interpretation of different Englishes and what affect her mother had on her. Amy Tan builds a case in “Mother Tongue” that just because some people don’t speak English perfectly, doesn’t mean that they are stupid or ignorant. Tan uses metaphors such as “broken” (8) and “fractured” (8), these words are strong metaphors due to the fact that they give the reader an easy understanding of what Tan is trying to say. Tan uses these metaphors as a way of describing how her mother spoke, while trying not to offend her.
The article 'Mother Tongue ' by author Amy Tan is about the variations in the English language the author uses in her life. She describes her English when giving a speech to a other people, English she uses when speaking to her mother, and English she uses in her writing. She tells of difficulties faced by both her mother and herself from these many differences. Amy 's goal in this article is to show that a person does not have to speak proper English to be seen as smart or intelligent.
After reading Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, my perspective changed about the struggles for people who are not as good at English. All throughout this article Tan uses personal experience from her mom to show the readers the struggle while also using primary sources to back up her claim. All the evidence backs up her initial claim and as the reader your perspective changes after reading about how she personally was effected. The author 's main claim of Mother Tongue is to persuade people so respect people who struggle with English because she has serval personal connections, she has fact based proof, and she is an experienced writer on this topic and in general. All throughout the reading she uses many personal stories and personal experiences on how difficult it was for her mother to go through her everyday life.