Observational Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

3. In paragraphs 10 through 13, Tan juxtaposes her mother’s English with her own. The point these quoted passages make is to show how different was her mother’s English from her English.

The essays, "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan and "Public and Private Language" by Richard Rodriguez are recollections of both of the author’s personal encounters and difficulties with the gap that was created between their families by differences in languages. These two writers grew up with bilingual families, in which English was not the primary language. Consequently, they had a hard time accepting and understanding the issues surrounding the different languages they spoke with their families at home, and within society. Because of this, the gap between their public and private languages that had been created through the introduction of a second language slowly grew larger, and eventually impacted their relationships with their family and caused them to view them in a different light. In their writing, Both Tan and Rodriguez reflect on their personal experiences and memories and illuminate the effects that a private language can have on various aspects of life.

There is a common theme between the two novels, a “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, and “Se Habla Espanol” by Tanya Maria Barrientos. Both novels include an individual that has difficulty speaking another language, either it is their cultural language or English. Having difficulties speaking another language can have a great impact and affect a lot of people’s lives, even those individuals that are surrounded by the people affected. These two novels have abstract agents that teach and regulate literacy. A “Mother Tongue,” is about how Tan’s mother speaks “limited English” which made it challenging for Tan because they started to be judged poorly by others. “Se Habla Espanol,” was to express to other minorities that it is ok to embrace your heritage in a world that sees you differently. Tanya had a struggle speaking her own cultural language. She could not speak Spanish well, even though she was born as a Latino.

On the other hand the main focus on Tan’s story is to show the beautiful and passionate side of her mother that people can't see. Tan describes how all of the English’s that she grew up with, normal English and "mother tongue" English, has shaped her first outlook of life. She writes, "But to me, my mother's

Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth

Mother Tongue is a story that describes how Amy Tan’s mother was treated unfairly because of her “broken English”. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mom, who speaks “limited” English, needs Tan to be her “translator” in order to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan has felt ashamed of her mother “broken” language at first. She then contemplates her background affected her life and her study. However, she changes her thought at the end since she realizes things behind language might be more valuable than language itself sometimes. Through the various different literary devices and rhetorical strategies such as the ethos, pathos, and logos appeals, as well as a

“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.

English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize

She wants the audience to know right away that even though she is about to tell you the story of a difficult childhood, she did reach her goal in the end. After making this statement, Tan dives into her past and how she came to be where she is today. Her mother is the next most important point of discussion. Her mother influenced her writing style as well as her beliefs about her culture and heritage. ?Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her? (Tan, 2002, p. 36). The broken up English her mother uses is the next issue Tan focuses on. ??everything is limited, including people?s perceptions of the limited English speaker? (Tan, 2002, p. 36). Lastly, she talks about her education and the role it had on her deciding what she wanted to do with her life. ?Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me? (Tan, 2002, p. 39). By structuring the essay in order of importance, Tan reinforces her message that you can be anything you desire even with a different culture than the norm.

The purpose of Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue,” is to show how challenging it can be if an individual is raised by a parent who speaks “limited English” (36) as Tan’s mother does, partially because it can result in people being judged poorly by others. As Tan’s primary care giver, her mother was a significant part of her childhood, and she has a strong influence over Tan’s writing style. Being raised by her mother taught her that one’s perception of the world is heavily based upon the language spoken at home. Alternately, people’s perceptions of one another are based largely on the language used.

There are both positive and negative aspects of learning a language, but people are likely to equalize two sides and try not to lose the relationships with their family and the society. Amy Tan, in “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez in “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” explain how they viewed their private and public languages through their experiences and how they managed these two languages and established themselves in the society. Tan initially felt ashamed of her private language and favored the public language; however, in the end she showed that she could manage the balance between the languages and finally utilized both in public. On the other hand, Rodriguez preferred his private language which made him feel comfortable;

Language can be a door to a new world for most people. It can help the person get that higher ranking position in the office or stand out to a company during an interview. For others, it may be a door that gets slammed in their face. This could be losing connection with your family or many other scenarios. The text, Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is about Amy’s life growing up with her “perfect English” and her mother’s “broken English”. Her mother is a very intelligent woman, but struggles with her English and has a hard time communicating with others. Amy is often used as her mother’s translator to help get her point across. The other text, Richard Rodriguez’s “Public and Private Language” is about Richard’s life growing up as a Spanish boy with a Spanish family in America. His teachers and peers cannot understand his Spanish so the Nuns come to his house and tell his parents to practice English for the children so they can strive in their academics. This soon tears Richard’s family apart from what use to be a happy, talkative family to a few words and alone. These two texts clearly show that language is a door is Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez’s “Public and Private Language”.

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.

“Mother Tongue” was a speech Amy Tan made in front of many authoritative scholars who had investigated English literature for long time. Tan perhaps had great pressure for the experience she talked about is not familiar at all to those experts. They wouldn’t understand easily how someone from an immigrant family felt. Later the speech became a well-known essay of Tan and the audience changed. She was talking to everybody, especially the ones who speak perfect English. She wanted them to know that one with limited English could still be intelligent. Things behind language might be more valuable than language itself sometimes. That was something exceeded fluency, vocabularies and grammar. Amy Tan’s purpose of writing Mother Tongue is to remind the native English speakers to respect the “broken English” speakers and to find out the worthy thoughts concealed by the imperfect languages.

Tan had wrote the piece in a highly critical or upset tone. Tan never expressed aggression towards her mother's troubles and moved on. During her mothers problems troubles at the doctors she mentions “She did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and son have both died of brain tumors” (Tan 1014). Tan brought up how the doctor had little care for her mother not in an aggressive manner but one of a disheartened or upsetting mood. Another example of Tan showing a disheartened tone was when describing how her mothers broken english was limiting her potential in the literacy field. “Asian-American students whose english in the home might also be described as ‘Broken’ or ‘Limited.’ And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me” (Tan 1015). Tan describes 2 separate problems caused by mother’s broken english to americans that were serious issues and only resolved when Tan would speak her english for her mother. She described in a more disheartened tone to match that of the reader. Reading about her troubles would touch the readers heart in a soft or upset mannar rather than being angry and likely drawing readers to not believer her