"Mother Tongue"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that in Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue", Tan reflects on the linguistic tensions which plagued her childhood and adolescence and made her believe that her parents' broken English was having a negative impact on her performance in school. The author points out that her difficulties with English made her intensely aware of the different versions of the language she had seen, spoken and found acceptable. The paper states that Amy Tan's essay is definitely an effective and powerful statement not only on variations of English and her exposure to the same but also on class and cultural discrimination, which people encounter because of their inability to use proper standardized English.

From the Paper:

"While at school, she was taught standardized English, at work and with college audience, she used similar idiomatic English, the versions she used with her mother and husband were more intimate and personal to her. This personal version she describes as simple English because it lacked vast standard vocabulary but to Tan herself, this variation was anything but fragmented. "...to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery.""

More papers on "Mother Tongue":

• Comparison Essay # 148321 : "Woman as Other" and "Mother Tongue"
• Analytical Essay # 55792 : "Mother Tongue"
• Analytical Essay # 53277 : "Mother Tongue" and Language Groups"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: