Indeed, Tan conjectures that many Asian American children are probably encouraged to pursue careers in jobs requiring maths and science rather than English for this reason. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. How is Amy Tan's use of the phrase "mother tongue" ambiguous? On what were these descriptions and perceptions based according to paragraphs 15-16 of "Mother Tongue"? You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. from Oxford University Ph.D. from St. Andrews University, Amy Tan, like many children of immigrants, has more than one identity, and these identities are primarily defined by language. Her mother attends a lecture that Tan is delivering, and Tan realizes that her mother is hearing Tan speak a kind of English that she does not use at home. ACCTG 205: CH 1 Vocabulary. Print. Amy Tan "Mother Tongue" How do you want to study today? To what extent do you think that speaking a non- standardized English (through grammatical differences or an accent) "limits . Her mother, too, was clearly aware of how her use of the language affected how seriously people took her, for she used to get her daughter to phone people and pretend to be Mrs Tan. Tan uses it with this definition, but also utilizes it to refer to the language her mom spoke (Chinese). She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with ease--all kinds of things I can't begin to understand. Tan does a great job incorporating several different tones into such a short piece. A Summary and Analysis of Amy Tan's 'Mother Tongue' By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) 'Mother Tongue' is an essay by Amy Tan, an American author who was born to Chinese immigrants in 1952. As her mother wasn't able to speak English fluently, she wasn't taken seriously by the staff. Accessed 2 May 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. How does she establish ethos by this juxtaposition? I was giving a talk to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. Lately, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. What argument is Tan making here about language and its connection to our identity in "Mother Tongue"? Amy's mother refused to leave the office until someone called her daughter. This establishes ethos as she admits that her specialty is in being a writer. In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan uses people's inclination to assume as a way of exploring the subject of identity. Describe what the fighting is like and what you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of your army. Although Tan clearly appeals to pathos through personal narration and characterization, she makes some appeals to logos. M.A. When they called her daughter, who had perfect English, they suddenly found her scan. She said they would not give her any more information until the next time and she would have to make another appointment for that. 6) rather than paraphrasing what she said? But many people who hear her mother speak can only partially understand what she is saying, and some even say they can understand nothing of what she says, as if she were speaking pure Chinese to them. Describe how others (those who do not know her intimately) see Tan's mother versus how Tan describes her in "Mother Tongue." Tan uses an example of her mother going to New York to yell at her stockbroker, after not receiving her check from cashing out her portfolio, to show us that even though her language skills were sub par, she could still very effectively communicate her feelings and ideas. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. Find and create gamified quizzes, lessons, presentations, and flashcards for students, employees, and everyone else. The only way I would have gotten that answer right would have been to imagine an associative situation, for example, my being disobedient and staying out past sunset, catching a chill at night, which turns into feverish pneumonia as punishment, which indeed did happen to me. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of languagethe way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.. And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, "Why he don't send me check, already two weeks late. 6. I came up with the idea that the author's claim is that one's use of language does not indicate their amount of knowledge or worth, but I am not sure if I am thinking of the right answer. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person's developing language skills are more influenced by peers. In Amy Tan's short story "Mother Tongue," explain the essence of what "mother tongue" signifies in the story. eNotes Editorial, 28 June 2020, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-argument-is-tan-making-here-about-language-2353688. Her mother gave her praise that meant a great deal to Tan: I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: 'So easy to read.'. In the following sentence, underline each misspelled or misused word and write the correct spelling or word above the incorrect word. She mentions the figure that most Asian students in schools are not enrolled in artistic courses, such as creative writing. Later, the gangster became more powerful, far richer than my mother's family, and one day showed up at my mother's wedding to pay his respects. It's my mother tongue. Spend some time evaluating the essays structure, and analyze whether it is right for Mother Tongue. Would it have been better as a novel or a poem, or is a short narrative the way to go? Along with her BS in marketing from Florida State University and MA in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University, she has spent the past 7 years learning how best to reach and teach people using the power of words. In fact, Tan uses the same tone in the beginning and end of her storythe reader starts at a homebase, sees the journey Tan is leading them on, and returns right back to where they started but with more insight than before. 11th Review / Critical Thinking Questions. A person's "mother tongue" is usually considered to be their first language, but in this story, it refers to her "mother's tongue," or the version of English that her mother speaks. Answers will vary widely, depending on students' personal experiences, situations, and viewpoints. She recounts a time when the doctors at the hospital were unsympathetic towards her mother when they lost the results of the CAT scan they had undertaken on her brain, but as soon as the hospital at her mothers insistence called her daughter, they issued a grovelling apology. It is their "language of intimacy," even though he is a native English speaker. Many of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club, such as Betty St. Clair in The Voice from the Wall, feel isolated from those around them, never at home in America, and hyper-aware of their outsider status, despite becoming legal permanent citizens in the country. Here, Tan alludes to the concept of the "mother tongue": a child's earliest language, often used with a primary caregiver, who in many instances is the mother. At several points in her essay, Tan related anecdotes. This English is expressive, grammatically distant from proper forms, hard to understand for some native English speakers, and perfectly comfortable to Amy. /BitsPerComponent 8 Tan refers to how much language impacts/changes our lives. We used a similar routine just five days ago, for a situation that was far less humorous. -uses quotes to give an example of her mother's English "What argument is Tan making here about language and its connection to our identity in "Mother Tongue"? She is the second of three children born to Chinese immigrants, Daisy and John Tan. In "Mother Tongue" why does Tan include her mother's story about the political gangster in Shanghai? Latest answer posted March 29, 2020 at 1:00:09 PM. This text is a great starting point for discussions on culture, language and more. The author notes that the language her mother speaks is very different than "American English," but that it is deceiving in that her mother understands more than one might think when listening to her speak. Take Tan's mother's experience with the doctors as an example. 20 terms. When she began to write fiction, she made a conscious decision to write to a specific audience: she decided to write to her mother; as she was writing about relationships between mothers and daughters in her stories. While my English skills were never judged as poor, compared to math, English could not be considered my strong suit. In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan uses people's inclination to assume as a way of exploring the subject of identity. 1. 7. Tan is making the argument in "Mother Tongue" that she became a better writer when she began to use both the types of English she spoke to write books her mother could understand. Identify the message of Tan's essay, "Mother Tongue." "And the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, "Even though Tom was shy, Mary thought he was charming:' with the grammatical structure "even though" limiting the correct answer to some sort of semantic opposites, so you wouldn't get answers like, "Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was ridiculous:' Well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. -talking to her mom "My mother was in the room", Tan quotes a "terrible line" she once wrote "That was my mental quandary in its nascent state." 6 0 obj That man want to ask Du Zong father take him in like become own family. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. In the essay, Tan discusses her relationship with language, and how her mothers influence has shaped her use of English, as well as her attitude to it. her mother How does the author describe her mother's English early in the essay limited I was saying things like, "The intersection of memory upon imagination" and "There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus-and-thus'--a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother. Because dogs are legally required to be on a leash, letting your dog run free in the park is a(n) _______. Who is the intended audience for "Mother Tongue"? On what were these descriptions and perceptions based according to paragraphs 15-16 of "Mother Tongue"? I am not a scholar of English or literature. Unlike most of the other literature youve read for class, Mother Tongue by Amy Tan is short and pretty easy to breeze through. Her mother attends her lectures. 8 . This could create a gap in their education "level" as you usually don't absorb much of the content if you've no clue what the teacher is saying. Edit. Writer discussed: Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" (Link to story) Amy Tan is speaking of writing her book "Joy Luck Club" (there's a scene below), so in that sense it works as a good example of a literacy narrative in that Tan writes about writing something. She had more difficulty answering questions presented in English class due to the nature of language, being able to be interpreted in more than one way. /Creator ( w k h t m l t o p d f 0 . ______ to influence. Mother Tongue is an essay by Amy Tan, an American author who was born to Chinese immigrants in 1952. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived.". When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. Where "mother tongue" usually refers euphemistically to someone's first language, here it refers to Amy's mother's second language: the English that Amy is familiar with her using, literally her mother's tongue. Although Amy Tan was born in the United States, her writing is shaped to a great degree by the immigrant experience. Because she was in a family where their home language wasn't English, her scores in English weren't as good as the ones she received in math. It has always bothered me that I can think of no other way to describe it other than "broken," as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. Paraphrasing her mother's words would take away from the audience's understanding of the exact type of language boundaries they were dealing with. Then write an essay in which you explain the use of English in your life and communications. indiiigo. Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. She goes from being ashamed of her mothers speakingfeeling that other people will judge her familyto being proud of the rich culture behind her mothers English. Mother Tongue by Amy Tan - Essay Summary, Analysis, Review 742 views May 19, 2022 25 Dislike The CodeX Cantina 17.6K subscribers Welcome to the CodeX Cantina where our mission is to get. And how they tend to excel in mathematics and science due to language barriers. How did Tans teachers identify her when she was in high school? Identify them and describe their effect. She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with easeall kinds of things I can't begin to understand. The main idea of Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" is the limitations that imperfect English can impose in society and the richness that such English can bring to writing. << /ColorSpace /DeviceRGB . Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. In paragraph 6, Tan quotes part of one of her mother's conversations. Be sure to focus on specific language, punctuation, and imagery used to create the overall tone. -Informal - conversational; "So you'll have some idea.." The title of Amy Tans essay is a pun on the expression mother tongue, referring to ones first language. [/Pattern /DeviceRGB] Discuss how this is present in her writing of "Mother Tongue. Discuss how Tan broadens the essay's relevance by going beyond just her personal experience and raising issues that would be germane to her audience. Chinese way, came only to show respect, don't stay for dinner.
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