For example, "It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with" (397). Tan is so used to hearing her mother talk in a "Broken" (398) English, which she does not seem to notice much of a difference between broken English and clear English. She grew up listening to her mother talk this way and has gotten used to it. This way when Tan and her mother talk it is how their family talks, their own special way they communicate to one another. Rodriguez shares this same family quality like Tan and her mother’s language.
Tan comes to the idea that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families plays a large role in shaping the language of a child and opportunities in life. For example, in her experience, she notices that Asian students actually do better in math tests than in language tests. She questions whether or not other Asian students are discouraged from writing or directed in the direction of math and science. Tan changes her major from pre-med to English and then she decides to become a free-lance writer even though her boss told her she could not write. Tan eventually went
I believe most of my literacy was all dependent on my Mom’s ability to help me make these connections, especially with reading. Once I could make the connection between what the word was and what the object was it was immediately placed in my mind. It was almost like learning by osmosis because we are placed in a society today where everything is based off of language. It is all around you just have to listen to it and pay attention.
Jones expresses these dilemmas within his story through an immense selection of literary devices and techniques. While preparing her daughter for her first day of school, the mother in the story puts a lot of time and effort into making sure her little girl's outer appearance is superb. By directly including the phrase, "like everything else I have on, my pale green slip and underwear are brand new," Jones throws the reader a bone, so to speak. This is a simple statement that Jones injects into his story to give the reader an opportunity to expand upon and potentially question the significance of the brand new clothes. In addition, Jones uses descriptive vocabulary as he addresses
Zhu 1 Jay RHET 110-08 Veronica Andrew Due: Sep.24th 2011 Language For What “Not waste money that way.” This statement, which is full of grammar errors, is from Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue. I think most of the people do understand the meaning of this statement. Now, it produced a problem: Why do we have to say something, and always think of grammar? In Tan’s Mother Tongue, she successfully uses evidences to proved “As a language, it’s for communication, not for look or what. So why do we have to follow the grammar rules if we do understand the people actually talk about?” Tan's observations in her essay are very clear and convincing.
Amy Tan Final Exam In “My Mother’s English” by writer Amy Tan, we learned that her perception on her mother’s English had evolved over-time. As a writer Amy Tan feels that language is her way or tool of getting a point across, she even uses “All the English she grew up with”, meaning the fractured English her mother taught her. Tan says, “It is the sort of English that is our language of Intimacy, the English that relates to family talk, and the English that I grew up with”. Tan’s main point is that even though her mother speaks what some would call broken English, to her it’s beautiful to other “English speakers” it is abnormal. I think that her mother has been labeled or stereotyped.
She backs up this statement with an example, “My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her.” (180). This was followed by an example Tan mentioned about how she had to call her mother’s stock broker to tell him that he must send her, her money back that day or else they would travel to
I cannot give you much more than personal opinions…I am a writer…I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life…” (Pg.402) Tan frequently used anaphora throughout and many times, “I”, the first person point of view was used. Her sentence fluency varied, with many short and choppy sentences and numerous long and fluent ones. I could relate to “Mother Tongue,” because depending on the situation, the author used different types of “Englishes”. Tan spoke “broken” English with her mother, and a more sophisticated one with other people.
2. The word "translation" is in the title of the novel and learning to translate between her two languages is key to Kimberly’s ability to thrive in her new life. Does she find herself translating back and forth in anything other than language? Can you cite instances where this occurs, and why they are significant to the story as a whole? 3.
The talk was going along well enough, until Iremembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. Andit was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her. I was saying things like, "The intersection of memory upon imagination" and "There is anaspect of my fiction that relates to thus-and-thus'--a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of theEnglish I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and usedfurniture and I heard myself saying this: "Not waste money that way."