Mother Tongue Essay - 644 Words

Not all people who speak the English language speak it the same way. It is very uncommon to find two people that speak the exact same English because there are so many different forms of the language. This is the argument that Amy Tan makes in her story, â€Å"Mother Tongue†. Tan uses pathos to portray to her audience how through her experiences with her mother and the Chinese language she came to realize who she wanted to be and how she wanted to write. In â€Å"Mother Tongue†, Tan discusses the many ways in which the language that she was taught affected her life. Throughout the story, she describes her relationship with her mother, who speaks â€Å"broken† English, and how her perception of language has changed due to her mother. Whenever Tan was†¦show more content†¦Amy Tan also felt that standardized tests could not accurately determine a person’s intelligence. She effectively makes her argument by using rhetorical devices such as, â€Å"I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts† (Tan 768). When she said that standard tests cannot determine a persons true intelligence, she was trying to say how people have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence, and yet these standard tests only can measure a certain type of intelligence; therefore it really is kind of unfair, for lack of a better term. Overall, the main idea of Tan’s story is to stress that just because someone cannot speak English to perfection does not in any way make them less intelligent than someone who is born in this country and understands and speaks English fluently. Tan has judged and has been judged by her language, and has seen her mother disrespected because of how she speaks but these experiences have shaped her whole outlook on life. Through her essay, Tan wanted to send a powerful message of how we ought to view people by their beautiful side and not by their shortcomings. Everyone has a message to say, it may be different from yours and it might be grammatically incorrect but it does not make the message wrong, it just makes itShow MoreRelatedMother Tongue Essay795 Words   |  4 Pagesmulticultural people in the world today. For many, the choices of which language they use, and how they use it, correspond to what social or cultural community they belong to. Amy Tan, a Chinese American n ovelist, portrays this well in her short essay Mother Tongue. Tan grew up in two vastly different worlds, using different Englishes. The first world, which consists of her close family, she speaks what we may call broken or limited English. The second world, which is her business and professionalRead MoreEssay on Amy Tans Mother Tongue845 Words   |  4 PagesAmy Tans Mother Tongue 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. The author, Tan, has written the books The Joy Luck Club, and The Kitchen Gods Wife. She is Asian-American, her parents are originally from China, but moved to Oakland, California. The audience inRead More Amy Tans Mother Tongue Essay1106 Words   |  5 PagesAmy Tans Mother Tongue The Essay written by Amy Tan titled Mother Tongue concludes with her saying, I knew I had succeeded where I counted when my mother finished my book and gave her understandable verdict (39). The essay focuses on the prejudices of Amy and her mother. 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This essay will talk aboutRead MoreMother Tongue by Amy Tan Essay1070 Words   |  5 Pagesand Culture Amy Tan’s ,â€Å"Mother Tongue† and Maxine Kingston’s essay, â€Å"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. In the work of Amy Tan’s â€Å"Mother’s Tongue† she provides a look intoRead MoreEssay about The Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez2547 Words   |  11 PagesDemetria Martà ­nez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ Marà ­a’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met Josà © Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. 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For Tan and her mother, language isRead MoreA Literary Analysis on â€Å"Mother Tongue† By Demetria Martinez Essay2507 Words   |  11 Pages A Literary Analysis on â€Å"Mother Tongue† By Demetria Martinez â€Å"His nation chewed him up and spat him out like a pinon shell, and when he emerged from an airplane one late afternoon, I knew I would one day make love with him† (Martinez, 3). And so it starts, the story of a nineteen year old Mexican- American girl named Mary (Maria; as he only chooses to call her), who helps out and eventually falls in love with Jose Luis Alegria, a Salvadoran refugee. Martà ­nezs story of Marà ­a is toldRead MoreSynthesis Essay on Mother Tongue by Amy Tan and Censoring Myself by Betty Shamieh1623 Words   |  7 PagesEnglish 125 April, 2nd, 2012 Synthesis essay Today we live in a society that is often called a salad bowl. It is called a salad bowl because it consists of various different people from various different backgrounds. We all live together in a society, but we still retain our own distinct flavors which helps to contribute to the richness and diversity of society. Unfortunately, today we also live in a society in which some of these groups are marginalized and looked down upon by othersRead MoreMother Tongue1199 Words   |  5 PagesRhetorical Analysis of â€Å"Mother Tongue† written by Amy Tan â€Å"So easy to read†(p.4). Amy Tan ends her essay, â€Å"Mother Tongue† with this short and even grammatically wrong sentence. She tells us this mother’s brief review is a proof of success of her writing. Why does she think that easiness is an essence of her writing? She suggests answers to this question by her essay. In her essay, Amy Tan effectively convinces her readers that â€Å"broken English† is not an inferior language, but just