Taming A Wild Tongue Language Analysis

The tongue for every language is that inside the mouth, speaking words, meanings, and sentences. Both articles, being, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” and “The Mother Tongue”, touch on this subject. We see how these articles describe how language varies around the world yet both articles are different in describing this; both taking a deeper approach. Language has become a powerful tool used around the world and peoples interpretation of these various languages can shape that of who we are/how we view the people speaking them, shown throughout both articles. We see a perfect description of language in the first article, being that of, “A language which they can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values true

For instance, in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she brought in personal experiences that she had as a child, making her to want to become an advocate for the growing issue of language interpretation. We first see this problem in the beginning of the article where Gloria states, “I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name” (Anzaldua 167). This showing how much of the language issue is rooted in the teacher. If the teacher has a particular bias on a subject, she will most likely teach this bias to the class. Speech classes have been created at many universities for immigrant students, with the goal of getting rid of the accents these people have (Anzaldua 168). Similarily, the reflective article, “The Mother Tongue” takes this approach. Amy Tan describes how language is what “evokes emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” with language also being a “fascination in her daily life” (Tan 178). Tan describes throughout her article how she believes language shows imagery and that our language is a reflection of who we are. However, similar to the other article, she brings in her personal experience. One example being that of when she was a child. She states how whenever her mother talked, many only understood about “80 to 90 percent of what she was saying” or ”some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese” (Tan 179). This problem was difficult for Tan as is later led to problems in various experiences as she grew up. She brings in how many people believed “English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were then imperfect” (Tan 180). A doctor once refused CAT scan results to her mother because of her “imperfect”