This “broken” English limited even Tan’s own perception of her mother; she believed her mother’s imperfect English meant that her mother’s ideas and thoughts must be imperfect as well. When in public, people would pretend to not understand her mother or just flat out ignore her. Tan talks about being one of the main avenues of communication for her mother, pretending to be her on calls to a stockbroker, interpreting what her mother wished to say into formal English for others. She believed that due to her mother’s limitations that it would effectively limit her own possibilities in the future. As an adult, Tan takes great effort to point out that, although her mother speaks in “broken” English, this by no means lessens her mother’s intelligence; she reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, and engages in daily calls with her stockbroker.
n the article “Mother Tongue”, Amy tan emphasizes the idea that we all speak different languages unconsciously and that we are categorized by the way we speak. The author is a fictional writer who is “fascinated by language in daily life” and uses language as a daily part of her work as a writer. In paragraphs 2 and 3 she observes experiences that made her realized the different types of "Englishes" she uses. The first time she became aware of this was when giving a talk about her book, The Joy Club, she saw her mother in the audience and she realized that she had been using academic language learned from books, a language she had never used with her mother. The second time she noticed one of her “Englishes” was when walking with her mother and husband, she said “not waste money that way” which for her is an intimate language used only by her family.
She made a book which was about her writing, her life, and of course her book. She included many English’s that are used till this day in different immigrant households and how some people can understand their type of English and others don’t. Amy Tan describes how growing up her mother’s limited English limited her perception of her. She would sometimes feel ashamed of her English because it reflected upon others in restaurants, banks, or department stores. In Mother Tongue Amy made a great point when she spoke about how when she was fifteen years old her mother would have her call people on the phone and pretend it was her in order to ask and receive the correct information she needed.
Novelist Amy Tan (Libi Pedder / Camera Press / Retna) Tan proves her point about parents’ influence on people’s life when she states “I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well”. By talking about how her mother’s English lacked a certain wholeness and clarity, she explains why her thoughts about her mother tongue were different when she was a child; “I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” People in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants didn’t take her mother seriously, didn’t give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they didn’t hear her. Here Tan emphasizes the importance of mother tongue in somebody’s life. She believes that people may not be treated respectfully because of their poor speaking of any language. She never reflects on her mother’s difficulties as something that could’ve motivated her to become a writer.
She pointed out that mother tongue could affect everyone one of us, just like how she is affecting her husband without noticing. Her husband is not aware of the change of English form and the ‘weirdness’ of this form of English that they used to communicate among their family and the kind of English that she grew up with. It may be misunderstood by others, but to Amy, this type of English is perfectly clear and natural because this is her mother tongue. Her mother tongue is not a barrier in her ability to learn this English language, besides, she consider her mother tongue to be vivid, direct and full of observation and imagery which helped her to shape her way of seeing and expressing things, and to look at this world in a different way. People may consider her mother tongue to be ‘broken’ or ‘fractured’, or in another way they consider them as ‘limited English’, where people tend to relate limited English and limited perception together.
Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” Summary In the essay “Mother Tongue” By Amy Tan she points out that we are often labeled and categorized by the way we speak. Tan notices how we unintentionally tend to use different Englishes when around different types of people. She tells how she was giving a talk, a talk she had already given to half a dozen other groups the only difference this time was her mother was in the audience. This was the first time she became aware that she uses different englishes. Tan explains that language in immigrant families tends to have a greater role in shaping the language of the child, and how it can limit the possibilities available to them.
Although English is not my second language, I feel that “proper” English is. From Amy Tan’s essay and my own life experience, I believe that too many people in America are treated unfairly because they do not speak “proper” English. I remember growing up with my aunt and having trouble with my English because the school system was so poor. I had to be taken out of my normal classes in third grade and put in a class for kids who had trouble with their English. On career day my teacher asked me what I wanted to be, and I told her I wanted to be a lawyer.
The bulk of the story explains her experience with different writing styles after her decision to focus everything on English. When Amy had initially started her career as a writer, she had tried her hardest to use a complicated, “overly sophisticated” form of English with lines such as: “That was my mental quandary in its nascent state.” She had never taken the time to think about the possible audience of her stories at this stage in her career. This has caused many lines in the original drafts of her stories to ultimately get scrapped because of the major breakthrough in her career. She had decided to begin writing in a style that would, “make sense” to her mother, using a dialect that would allow her mother to completely interpret and understand her stories. What she didn’t mention was what had caused such a change in her writing.
In her writing career, she has completed a lot of good work, which shows her thought and experiences. Tan considers her relationship with her own mother, concentrating on the different “Englishes” she and her mother use to communicate with each other and with the world. Tan’s mother moves from Shanghai to The United States. She is not good at English. When she communicates with people, they cannot fully understand what she says.
My mother spoke in normal Trini dialogue, so I would constantly hear phrases such as “Do not cut you nose to patch you bottom” and “If you see you neighbor house catch fire wet yours”. To some of my friend my mother had no idea what she was talking about and should maybe work on her English, but to me she spoke clear and understandable English. I can relate to Tan in this way, because many people did not understand her mother and assumed her grasp on English was very weak, when it was actually the opposite. Over the years, I have noticed how my mother’s dialogue has rubbed off on me. I constantly find myself speaking in the island dialogue while at home, but the second someone calls or visits, I am able to switch into a more proper English dialogue with my American friends.