Mother Tongue

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Week 1-Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

The main idea of the article Mother Tongue by Amy Tan is that people have different perspectives of the English language. The author is trying to pass across the point that people tend to look down on people that do not speak the perfect English language. This is seen in how the author’s mother is treated by the people she encounters. For instance, people pretended not to understand what her mother was saying at the bank and in stores because her English was broken. The primary purpose of this article is to sensitize the audience against unequal treatment of people based on the language they speak. This article calls out the behaviors of people who mistreat non-native English speakers. The article also aims to explain the author’s experiences and challenges that people who do not speak English as their first language go through. The article is about the conflicts that Amy Tan goes through in her daily life both as a writer and with the family. The language she uses in her profession is not the same language she uses to speak to her mother because it is complex and filled with vocabulary. Tan feels deeply about her mother tongue because she has experienced first-hand her mother being treated unequally because she speaks broken language. She has seen people ignore her presence simply because she cannot communicate as best as she would want to because of her Chinese accent. At times, she was forced to pick up her mother’s calls and pretend to be her.

A good thesis statement for this article would be “while language is important in communication, non-native English speakers struggle to be understood because of their mother-tongue interference making their communication experiences difficult.” The main message of this article is that it is our duty to be accommodative of each other as human beings. At the end of the day, no human is perfect, and as such, we should try to make life experiences of everyone as smooth as possible. The article is important as it addresses an important issue that people rarely talk about unequal treatment of people along the lines of the language they speak. I would describe Tan’s relationship with her mother as a considerate and loving one. Growing up, Tan helped her mother communicate with people by answering her calls. Even as Tan is writing her book, she says she wants to write a book that her mother would read and understand. This is very considerate of her. The target audience for this article is immigrants who do not speak English as their first language and members of the public who might be struggling with language. When giving the presentation, Tan realizes that her mother is part of her audience and so she might not understand everything that she says. This is because Tan tends to use more complex language filled with vocabulary, but when she speaks to her mother, she uses simpler language. The tone used in this article is relaxed and informative. The point of view of this text is that when giving a talk, speakers should assess their audience to ensure that they will understand what they say. Also, the article opines against unequal treatment of non-English native speakers.

Quote Sandwich

Quote 1: Tan writes “I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: so easy to read.”

Paraphrase: Tan explains that she knew she had succeeded when her mother finished reading the book and said it was easy to read.

Explanation: The explanation is that when writing her book, Tan had purposed to write a book that her mother could comfortably read and understand. Tan wanted to show that communicating does not have to be a challenging experience for non-native speakers. She knew she had achieved her goal when her mother confirmed that the book was easy to read.

Quote 2: Tan writes, “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.”

Paraphrase: Tan explains that her mother was not sent a check by her stockbroker and was angry that she lost money (Tongue, 2).

Explanation: Tan’s mother could not speak perfect English, so she had her speak to the stockbroker on the phone in her place. Her mother was trying to say that she was concerned that she had not received her check and was afraid that she had lost money. Although her mother could barely speak proper English, Tan understood everything she said.

Works Cited

Tongue, Mother. “Amy Tan.” The World is a Text: Writing, Reading, and Thinking about Culture and Its Contexts (2003): 291.