After reading “Mother Tongue”, by Amy Tan the role that language played within her life was a rather significant one. Tan had not known the effects of the use of her own language within her personal life. The effects of her language were rather subtle, but actually had a large impact. When Tan was growing up her perception of her mother’s English was changing as she got older. Tan thought of her mothers words as representing her when she writes, “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English.” (Tan 2). Tan thought of her mother’s words and thoughts as poor quality and was embarrassed of her, Tan had though this mainly because she believed that if you can not express yourself correctly then you are not thinking correctly. The use of language had changed Tan’s own perception of herself because her upbringing had an effect on English language skills. Language had shaped Tan’s perception of herself when she writes, “I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well” (Tan 2) and “And I believe that it had affected my results on achievement test, I.Q. tests, and the S.A.T.” (Tan 2). Tan’s perception of herself concluded to her believing that her upbringing and the English she spoke growing up had an effect on her when she was young and how she spoke as she got older. Tan had become of her own language biases and those of others when she realized the reason there very few Asian-American writers. Tan asked herself why there are not more Asian-American writes and had came to the conclusion when she writes,”And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American student whose English spoke at home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” (Tan 3) and “And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.” Tan realized that her own bias and the biases of others stemmed mainly from the perception of the English language and the “limited” ability some people have and how much of an effect it can have on people.

I personally believe that people who learn English or are raised in non-English households who speak English as a second language are most definitely aware of how language is used around them. The difference of language and the use of English can be staggeringly different to what their normally used to and can have effects on their ability to properly comprehend what is being said. Some can even understand English perfectly and switch between two or more languages and be fine. I am most definitely aware of how English is used around me and I can pick up subtle differences. I mainly speak English so it has no major effect on me.

My name is Winnifer Pichardo. I am 18 years old. My intended major is Nursing. I prefer to be referred as female, she, her, hers.

after reviewing the syllabus, one ting I am excited about is hoe demanding the class is. This is exciting for me because I am the type of person that needs to be under a lot of pressure in order to get things done. This English course is adding for a lot more than my high school classes. Therefore, it motivates me to more and get my act together. However, English is not my strongest subject since it is my second language, I struggle a lot with the language. This course moves too fast and I am not very good with fast. I know I am going to struggle a lot with the course. However, I’ll do my best to face my concerns.

The qualities of a good writer is knowing what you are doing. A good writer knows the audience, the topic, to who they are speaking to, and how to speak. In my opinion to be a good writer you need to know how to argue politely. In addition, you need to be straight forward and be able to be informative. Moreover, know the topic deeply to provide strong evidence. To be a good writer you need to be able to catch the audience attentions. It is important to know how to write because it is a life skill that you will need for the rest of your life.

I struggle with every writing assignment that I have. However, the easiest part for me would be evidence. the only thing I do well is finding evidence to support my claim. Finding evidence is very easy once you have your claim. For me evidence is proving that I am right and that you are wrong and I never like to be wrong. I also compare writings to real life. Evidence in an essay is like finding who really is your friend and who is not. Once you have mastered to distinguish the real from fake, because evidenced and facts are needed to determine, finding concrete evidence to support a claim is easy.

The harder part of writing for me is the beginning and the end. I really to work on my introductions and the Segway for each body paragraph. The introduction is small talk for me and I am not good with small talk. I like to get to the point, provide my claim and the evidence. I also struggle with the conclusion because I always end up writing an introduction.

For my major I expect not be writing about how to safe people from dying during emergencies. I also expect mot be writing everything about health.

Language makes up an important part of someone’s identity. Language can reveal a lot about a person such as their ethnicity, perhaps their culture or even their interests in learning. “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan, shows how language plays a role in her life. Language in Tan’s case, played the role of a barrier that Tan had to overcome to reach success. As a young child, Tan disliked her “mother’s English”, she felt embarrassed when her mother spoke because her English was described by many as “broken”. Tan felt that “her [mothers] English reflected the quality of what she had to say… because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.” Because of this certain bias towards “broken English” speakers, Tan explains that when going to department stores, banks, restaurants or doctor visits etc., the workers would not take her mother seriously because they correlated lack of English to a lack of intelligence. This lead her to believe that her “mothers English… had an affect on limiting [her] possibilities in life… [and] that it affected her results on achievement tests, IQ tests…” because academically she excelled in science and math but not in writing or reading since she grew up in a household where “broken English” was the norm for her. This shaped young Tan into a person that did not believe will have many opportunities for themselves in the future. Growing up however, she went against the assumptions made on her and disproved them by becoming an English major and beginning her writing career. She was breaking the barrier that language had become in her life. It was not until recently, that Tan realized that not many Asian-Americans are represented in literature, beginning to question why not many Asian-Americans enroll in writing courses and it made her think that “there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as ‘broken’ or ‘limited’” and that perhaps their teachers are also discouraging them from writing and English and into math and science as they did to her because of her English.
I believe that people who learn English as a second language are constantly aware of the way language is used around them. Take me into consideration, I was raised in a Mexican household and being the first in my generation to be born in the U.S, I was surrounded hearing my family speak only Spanish. When I watched cartoons was the only time I was exposed to the English language up until I started pre-school which was when I started to interact with children who spoke English. At the time, transitioning from the English I spoke in school to the English I would rarely have to speak in at home, was somewhat of a difficult task because I constantly had to remind myself that my parents English was different than mine, their English was more simpler than mine in terms that if I were to describe a food as “exquisite” in school, I would have to describe it as “very good” at home. Growing up like this makes you aware of how constant language is being used around you, how it is always changing when you enter a room full of foreign speakers compared to a room full of English speakers.