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Tan Mother Tongue

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In the essay Mother Tongue by Amy Tan she speaks about how is was when she was growing up. That it was difficult for her to deal with her mother's "fractured English" but, has she grew older she became more proud of her broken way of speaking. She realized that there was nothing wrong with the way her mother spoke and that her mother wasn't different than any other American just because of how she speaks. I think that Tans' main point is very enlightening and should be shared with others. You shouldn't judge a person based on how they sound. Because while we may only have a little understanding of what they are saying they could actually be more eloquent than they appear, that they are just like any other person and that to them it may seem …show more content…

To Tan her mother is very eloquent and has a rich way of speaking but that she sounds fractured or like she doesn't have a very good understanding of the English language too other people, that they can only understand about 50 to 90 percent of what her mother says. If not that then they say they can't understand her at all. (21) "Yet some of my friends tell me they understand fifty percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand eighty to ninety percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese, But to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery." (Tan 21) It shows how the different the two perceptions are, Tans' and her friends. I personally found this essay enlightening. The reason for that is because I myself am at fault of being like the people that Tan speaks about. Because there have been times that I have been unable to understand certain people because of their accents. That I would almost completely ignore the parents and speak through their children to have an understanding of what they needed assistance with. After reading this my eyes were opened to how that affects them, and that I need to be more patient with listening to others and putting more effort into understanding

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And when the doctor called her daughter, me, who spoke perfect English, low and behold we had assurances the CAT scan would be found”.(13). This shows that again Tan had to help her mother and that she had nothing to be ashamed of. Personally this affected her in the way that her mother could not speak English too well, but she could, so she was the talker in the family. This shows the readers that if someone is different, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help them. The audience can take her memories, so that they can understand that some people are

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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.

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