Topic > The Role of Language in Life in the Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

Everyone who speaks the English language does not speak it the same way. It's rare to find people who speak English exactly the same, word for word, because there are so many ways to speak English. Amy Tan uses a name to describe the English she grew up with, "Mother Tongue." Tan uses emotion to tell his audience how his experiences with his mother and the Chinese language have shaped the way he speaks and writes today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In “Mother Tongue,” Tan describes the many situations in which the language she was taught influenced her life. Throughout the story, she explains her relationship with her mother, who speaks “broken” English, and how the way she perceives the language has changed because of her mother. When Tan was younger, she was always embarrassed by the way her mother spoke because it didn't sound right or sounded strange and other people who were not familiar with her way of speaking found it very difficult to understand her. Tan said that when she and her mother went to shops people treated them differently because they didn't speak "proper" English. She said people "didn't take her seriously, didn't do her a good job, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they didn't hear her." So, that being said, Tan sometimes had to pretend to be her mother, and would call people over to yell at them while her mother stood behind her telling her what to say. Language formed a barrier between Tan and her mother, but as Tan grew up she began to embrace this “broken” English, because it reminded her of home. He no longer saw anything wrong with his mother's language, in fact he found comfort in it, it had become part of his family. In the essay “Mother Tongue,” Tan talks about the power of tongue. He says, “it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.” One of the many main points of his story was that words are more than just words, sometimes you have to look deeper and beyond the words. For example, her mother did not speak perfect English, but it was the point her mother was trying to make or convey that matters. Amy Tan also believed that standardized tests could not determine a person's intelligence. He supports this argument using rhetorical statements such as: “I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: his intent, his passion, his imagery, the rhythms of his speech, and the nature of his thoughts.” When he said that standardized tests cannot determine a person's true intelligence, he was actually saying that people do not think alike and have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence, and these standardized tests only measure one type of intelligence. multiple intelligence. That's pretty unfair, for lack of a better term. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Overall, I want to say that the main idea of ​​Tan's story is to highlight the idea that just because someone can't speak English "correctly", it doesn't mean they are less intelligent than someone who was born into this country that understands and speaks correct English. Tan has been judged by her language and seen people disrespect her mother because of the way she speaks, but it was because of this that she was able to see through different languages ​​and become who she is today. Everyone has a message to say, it might be different from yours and it might be grammatically incorrect but that doesn't make the message wrong, it just makes it unique.,.