Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis

Many immigrants have a unique story that may reveal the reason for entering another country. Often, this decision leads to a desire of starting a new life in a country that has beyond opportunities to offer. Much like in the stories “A Proper Goodbye” by Katherine Vlassie, “Ajax la-bas” by Yeshim Ternar, and “Nach Unten” by Janice Keefer all give insights to the lives of immigrant women and the hardships they go through. In these short stories, the experiences of the women in minority groups unite them in a way that the inability to learn a new language for whichever reason, limits them from developing as an individual, reinforcement of their fears, and are oppressed by society thus affecting their daily lives.

The teenage years and transition to adulthood is in itself a very difficult period. Blending or fitting in are omnipresent issues that must be dealt with. For children of immigrants, this difficulty is only intensified through language. Both Amy Tan and Khang Nguyen strategically use narrative anecdotes and employ several rhetorical devices to illustrate this struggle in their works, “Mother Tongue” and “The Happy Days,” respectfully. Amy Tan chooses her childhood home as the primary setting of her work. This allows her to focus primarily on her conversations and interactions with her mother. However, she also gives several anecdotes in which her mother’s background and improper English negatively affected her, outside the home. Through

The process of assimilating to a new culture, environment, and language is never an easy task for immigrants settling in America. Whether forced to make such decisions to relocate to America or doing so by their own desires, all immigrants have had to survive the physical and psychological challenges encountered along the way. Foreigners are not only challenged by having to adapt to the physical surroundings, but they are also challenged by the unfamiliar social and cultural environment. The academic report “Living in America: Challenges Facing New Immigrants and Refugees” edited by Katherine Garrett, identifies a variety of problems foreigners encounter according to conducted studies and interviews with immigrants in ten cities across the United States. The narrative essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood “by Richard Rodriguez tells a story about the troubles Rodriguez and his family faced while first

When reading Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, I was reminded about the struggles of being an immigrant in the United States with all of the barriers with learning a new language and culture. I really saw this when it came to all Spanish words that are written in the book. To be able to understand her own culture, the reader has to have a basic understanding of Spanish. Culture is really taught through language, and there is a lot missing if the reader does not have this basic understanding. When immigrating to the States, people have to learn English not only to communicate well, but to fill out paperwork, and to understand the culture. For this essay I am going to focus on one story that resonated a lot with me when I was reading

“We are a country where people of all backgrounds, all nations of origin, all languages, all religions, all races, can make a home. America was built by immigrants” Hillary Clinton stated. What she means in this quote is immigrants had a huge influence on America. America would be extremely different without them, without the diverse population here we would not know or be exposed to the different cultures, languages, and religions that we know today.

Short exercise on “Mother Tongue” Mother Tongue’s Author Amy Tan talks about growing up listening to her mother’s English and the difficulties of some people to understand her. People would view her mother as one who speaks limited English. Amy Tans mother often times would not be taken seriously because of her inability to form proper sentences when speaking. Her Mother’s English reflected the quality of what she had to say causing her thoughts to be perceived as imperfect because she expressed them imperfectly.

In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan talks about how language influenced her life while growing up. Through pathos she explains to her audience how her experiences with her mother and the Chinese language she came to realize who she wanted to be and how she wanted to write.

“That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.” (419). In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she mentions that her mother was seen as a person who has broken thoughts since she spoke English as a second language; thus, she was unable to express her thoughts correctly so people did not take her serious. As a result, when people are put down because they do not speak language well, they are being denied as a person; in addition, that is how they are and there is no way of changing them. Also, language is a way people communicate, socialize, and exchange thoughts. Therefore, each individual’s identity includes their language and the way they speak it (even if it is not correct to others). On the contrary, in “Aria: A Memoir

Language is much more than a method of communication. Permeated within it are traditions, customs, and legacies of one’s culture. The identity of an entire population is in the distinct vocalizations of their native language. Unfortunately, as a wave of immigrants enters the United States at young ages, many face language barriers that pose significant challenges. Language barriers affect a multitude of immigrant populations to different degrees. This, in turn, causes many of them to abandon not only their native tongue but a piece of their ethnic identity, as well. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s personal narrative,“The Language of Silence,” she describes the difficulties she experienced throughout her childhood with a language barrier as a

Not all people whose English as a second language speak it in the same way. This argument made by Amy Tan in her story, “Mother Tongue”. In this essay, she successfully uses all three of Aristotle’s rhetorical styles such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Tan also notably balances each part of the rhetorical triangle and ultimately led to creating a very effective and thought provoking essay.

Some of the numerous challenges that minorities face in the United States include a higher rate of poverty, less education and educational opportunities, some minorities experience a language barrier, and all have unfair stereotypes and discrimination. The first challenge that I wish to address is the language barrier. The disparities are very obvious, and the consequences include less job opportunities and educational setbacks because most schools are not equipped to handle ESL students. Often these kids will get placed in the classes designed for the kids with learning disabilities. Often when someone cannot speak the language of the country others view them as stupid. I experienced this first hand while I lived in Brazil. This challenge is one of the largest that immigrant families face when coming to America. There is no designation of time set aside for them to learn the language, they are expected to show up and hit the ground running. Next the stereotypes are a more complex issue. These stem from so many things and these days they are usually taught covertly which makes them even harder to combat. The challenge the minorities and the white race have is to constantly challenge these beliefs and so called norms and in order to do

The first challenge for immigrants is the language barrier. Since English is the second or third language for most immigrants, they face a lot of problems to communicate. Although, immigrants have some knowledge of English, the pronunciation of most words is different. So they can’t understand and

Amy Tan’s literacy narrative “Mother Tongue” is about the different dialects of English, she is familiar with. She explains that her intelligence is judged by the way she speaks. Amy Tan, explains memories from her life where she encounters many forms of English. Her mother, a Chinese immigrant spoke “broken English.” She describes her mother as someone who was able to understand English, well the mother claims that she understands everything, but when it came to speaking, she spoke without the correct grammar. Due to her mothers broken English, Amy Tan has adapted to the type of English her mother speaks, their own type of English language. Tan feels as if the English she is speaking with it outside world is more complex than the English she

Amy Tan’s ,“Mother Tongue” and Maxine Kingston’s essay, “No Name Woman” represent a balance in cultures when obtaining an identity in American culture.  As first generation Chinese-Americans both Tan and Kingston faced many obstacles. Obstacles in language and appearance while balancing two cultures. Overcoming these obstacles that were faced and preserving heritage both women gained an identity as a successful American.

Amy Tan was born in the United States and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her Bachelor of Arts with a double major in English and Linguistics. She also has a Masters in Arts in Linguistics. Among her many publications and speeches one of the most notable is called “Mother Tongue.” It was originally published in "The Threepenny Review" (a literary magazine) and was selected for the 1991 edition of Best American Essays. In her essay she wrote about her experience of being a daughter to an immigrant mother. She used multiple rhetorical devices such establishing credibility and appealing to emotions to convey to her readers that those who cannot articulate their thoughts properly will not be heard and will be wrongfully perceived.