ipl-logo

Public And Private Language By Amy Tan And Mother Tongue By Richard Rodriguez

932 Words4 Pages

Imagine knowing one language and then needing to learn a whole new one to fit into society. For immigrant families, this is their reality when they come to the US. It is harder for the parents than the kids to learn English, since they learn it earlier on, but they all see and go through many challenges. Authors Amy Tan and Richard Rodriguez, who are from immigrant families, write about their own and their family's experiences. In the essays “Mother Tongue” (375) by Amy Tan and “Public and Private Language” (369) by Richard Rodriguez, the authors go through different experiences and struggles, yet are both affected by them in similar ways. While growing up a child’s view of their parents is affected by what they see their parents …show more content…

The way they and their families were treated in society because they either did not speak English or did not speak it properly, affected their views of society while growing up. Tan faced a few instances with her mother whose English was not as proper and saw that society can be hard on those who struggle with English. Tan stated that people “did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (376). For example, Tan’s mother had gone to the doctors to receive test results they had lost them and dismissed her with no sympathy for her or what she was feeling but when they spoke to Tan over the phone and heard her perfect English they were assured the test results would be found (Tan 377). On the other hand, when Rodriguez was in school, he was pushed to learn and speak English which affected his view of society. At first, he did not think he needed to be a part of a public society when he felt more comfortable speaking Spanish which was the language he was so used to. His view later changed once he started speaking English because he could finally be understood and felt like he belonged with those around him which was the society he did not want to be a part of in the first place. Both authors in the end viewed the world around them in a different light, even if their views were

Show More
Related

Summary Of Se Habla Espanol By Barrientos

678 Words | 3 Pages

“To me speaking spanish translated into being poor.” Barrientos also feel that she is judged by society and other Latinas for not speaking her cultural language. In this quote she explains the reaction of people when they figure that she doesn’t speak spanish. ”I hear the silent snag, the momentary hesitation I have come to expect at this part of the exchange.” In his literacy Malcolm X states that even though he was in prison, he “never had been so truly free in his life” Malcolm X said this quote because by reading and writing he experienced the world “behind bars”.

Read More

Analysis Of Hispanic Pride Vs. American Assimilation By Stephanie Cox

487 Words | 2 Pages

The author of “Hispanic Pride vs. American Assimilation,” Stephanie Cox, presents and explains Hispanic immigrants’ hesitancy to learn English very effectively. She begins by telling a personal story about meeting a Hispanic woman who wanted her son to learn English but refused to learn it herself. Cox was confused as to why the mother would refuse to learn English, so she did some research and found three possible causes of this situation: a pride in Hispanic peoples’ native countries--most specifically, Mexican-Americans, a close proximity to their native country, and the lack of support from other Hispanic Americans to assimilate to American culture and ideals. Cox’s explanation of the Hispanic reasonings aids in further understanding their situations.

Read More

Summary Of Being A Bilingual Student By Richard Rodriguez

367 Words | 2 Pages

In his essay about being a bilingual student, Richard Rodriguez makes the claim that a family’s language is intimate. As an intimate language it is unfit for use in school or in public and that attempts to do so demonstrate a misunderstanding of the purposes of school and the intimacy of a family’s language. To create this argument, Rodriguez recounts numerous parts of his childhood to serve as examples to support his claim. Rodriguez uses some of his examples to state that English is a public language. In one segment of his essay, he explicitly says that English is the language of society when he says “for it is now the sound that of my society,” (Rodriguez 12) his society being Americans.

Read More

What Are The Barriers In The Devil's Highway Urrea

742 Words | 3 Pages

Very few, if any, immigrants have the chance to learn English before traveling to the U.S. Because of this barrier, it is nearly impossible for organizations such as the Border Patrol to warn, aid, and communicate with them as they travel to the U.S. Although there are helpful signs along the border, they are written in English and are therefore indecipherable. Furthermore, the language border hinders an immigrant’s ability to survive in American society once they arrive. English is the written and spoken language in almost every city, thwarting immigrants’ opportunity to find jobs and interact with others. As they struggle to communicate, they become ostracized and do not fit in.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

216 Words | 1 Pages

In the article “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan cogitates about how her mother’s spoken English is compared to the Standard English language. Tan believes that language is not only a tool of communication, but also a sociological tool of measuring self worth. She’d always loved language, but never had she appeared expressive and rhetoric in front of her mother, due to the fact that her immigrant mother could not speak the Standard English language, but rather a “broken” English language. She discloses that between her mother, the outside world, and herself, only three languages exist: “broken” English (as her mother speaks to her), “simple” (as she speaks to her mother), and “watered down” (as she translates her mother’s tangled up broken English to

Read More

Compare And Contrast Richard Rodriguez And Anzaldúa

701 Words | 3 Pages

Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldúa are two authors who both immigrated to America in the 1950s and received first hand experience of the assimilation process into American society. During this time, Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had struggled adjusting to the school system. Since understanding English was difficult, it made adjusting to the American school system increasingly difficult for Rodriguez. Whereas Anzaldúa, on the other hand, had trouble adjusting to America’s school system due to the fact that she didn’t wish to stop speaking Spanish even though she could speak English. Both Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had points in their growing educational lives where they had to remain silent since the people around them weren’t interested in hearing them speaking any other language than English.

Read More

Similarities Between Mother Tongue And How To Tame A Wild Tongue

504 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

614 Words | 3 Pages

Mother Tongue was originally part of a speech that Amy Tan had given while she participated in a panel entitled,”Englishes: Whose English is it anyway?” in 1989. The author describes in detail how she finds herself using various forms of English, depending on who she is around. She also makes the point on how hard life can be for someone who doesn’t speak good English.

Read More

Hunger Of Unlike Espada, By Richard Rodriguez

1622 Words | 7 Pages

Rodriguez uses the public vs private analogy multiple times in his essay. Spanish being the private language meaning that fewer people speak and know it, and that because it is private, people who speak it are at a disadvantage. He says, “What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right- and the obligation- to speak the public language of los gringos. ”(6-8) In the first grade, Rodruguez had to alter his personal life and individuality because English had to no

Read More

Cultural Barriers In 'Learning To Read' By Richard Rodriguez

923 Words | 4 Pages

He could not handle being both cultures. “Choosing to speak the language of the dominant, choosing racelessness, bears a price, however. And that price is alienation-the loss of fictive kind-manship without being fully adopted by the white community.” (Villanueva) Rodriguez not only lost connection to his culture but his family as well. He was so committed in being the outstanding student he stepped away from his family.

Read More

Espadas Bilingualism

601 Words | 3 Pages

He shows this through his many experiences with bilingual court and education. At the end of his essay, Espada concludes with a basic summary of what he has learned. Espada claims “The repression of Spanish is part of a larger attempt to silence Latinos, and, like the crazy uncle at the family dinner table yelling about independence or socialism, we must refuse to be silenced.” Through the summary the reader understands despite English being the prevalent language the in the U.S. today the Spanish culture is still being preserved through bilingualism. On the other hand Rodriguez argues that in order to gain a public identity, one must be willing to sacrifice some part of their own cultural identity.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

526 Words | 3 Pages

“Amy Tan: Mother Tongue” In Amy Tan’s essay ¨Mother Tongue¨(1990), Amy Tan, a Chinese American Author, asserts that all languages are very significant. Ms. Tan explains her idea by praising her mother´s broken English, and sharing personal stories and conversation between her Mother and her husband The purpose of of praising the broken English is make her book easier to read and have the people who have mixed Englishes understand her life story. Her audience is the many people who speak broken English and people that understand her writing. The tone of the story was very solemn and hopeful because of the mixed Englishes to tell her story.

Read More

Mother Tongue Summary

714 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

The Power Of Language In Amyy Tan's Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

943 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Mother Tongue Analysis

1081 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Public And Private Language By Amy Tan And Mother Tongue By Richard Rodriguez

Related Topics

Open Document