Language plays an important part in Amy Tan’s life. The English that her mother knew was limited because of her native tongue. Amy took notices to this and seen that because of her mother first language being Chinese it mixes with her English creating “Broken English”. This “Broken English” made many people try to not put in the effort to give Amy’s mother the time of day making a mark on Amy’s life. Amy realized that there are many different kinds of English. There is the English people would use at work or giving a speech and then there is the English everyone uses when they are home. Amy claimed that “I was ashamed of her English”. The school’s teaching had made it hard for Amy to respect her mother’s English as it wasn’t the way that she was taught. Amy  didn’t want to be part of the ideal Asian-American student that focus more on math and wanted to be different and become a English major. Amy establishes this by stating, “I started writing nonfiction as a freelancer the week after I was told by my former boss that writing was my worst skill”. The example that was placed here deeply shows how there was no fate put in Amy and she had the motivation of her mother broken English to push her ideals forward.

I think people who grew up with English being there second language struggle more in America because Americans don’t like trying to understand people when they are attempting to talk English because it isn’t the English they were taught. I am not fully aware of the struggles of other people and communications with others because I was never really put in a situation where I couldn’t make out what the other person was saying to me and I always take the time to help someone if they ask. From my friends I know that at home they speak in there native tongue and when outside their home they speak in English. Most of the times when with people who speak another language I always wandered if they are more comfortable speaking their native tongue or English. I have come to the realization that most people who are different are treated as such because of the system that was created long ago and many people are not even aware of the damage they are doing to others. Most of American behavior is unintentional, but unavoidable because the lack of awareness of their action.

Language played a very important role in Amy Tan’s life. Amy spoke English and used language in many different ways. Amy spoke two different versions of the English language according to the text. She spoke “limited English”  around her mother and husband.  In paragraph 4 on page 1, Amy explains that this “limited English” was a way of talking intimately. She said this because Amy realized that the only time this language was used was when she was around close ones. The second version of English she used was around normal everyday people that showed up to her discussion about “The Joy Luck Club” in which she wrote. In paragraph 3 on page 1 she describes the language as complex and that she learned it from school. She did not speak to her mother in this type of English. Language impacted her perspective drastically. In the 2nd paragraph of page 2 Amy explains that her views of her mother were very limited. Amy claimed that when she was younger that she was ashamed of her mothers English.  This lead to Amy thinking less of her mother and believing that her broken English reflected the quality of what she had to say.

I believe Amy’s experience is very relatable.  I experienced a similar situation as Amy when I was younger. My grandparents used to live with my family and they could barely speak English. When I was younger and they tried to teach me something I heard what they said and thought nothing of it. As a kid when they would talk to me I wouldn’t really take in what they were saying. As I got older I started to really pay attention to them and understand that even though there was a language barrier, they were very smart and intelligent people. This impacted me greatly because I started to understand that if a person might struggle to speak a language it does not mean what they have to say lacks quality.

Throughout ‘Mother tongue’ by Amy tan her work as an American asian writer focuses on mother-daughter relationship due to the environment she grew up in. In this personal essay Amy tan figures out she had two worlds that she came from one where she knows English and one where she speaks “broken english” the type of english she learned from her mother. It’s not until one day where she was talking to other people about her book “The joy luck club” where she discovered that she speaks two different types of languages and this had impacted not only her writing but her life as well, she speaks broken english to her mother but more complex english to other people.She became ashamed of the way her mother spoke to her in English and it seemed as she was letting society telling tam that her mother’s broken English was an embarrassment and a problem, examples of when Tan’s mother was at the hospital and was treated horribly after being diagnosed with a brain tumor she called the hospital to grasp a better understanding of what was going on as she was extremely worry due to her husband and son passing away from this, due to her heavy accent she was treated horribly the hospital refusing to apologize for the mistake they have done of misplacing her test results . But when Tan called speaking without an accent the hospital representative were extremely apologetic and corrected the error they have made.This allowed tan to think wheat her the way she spoke English would have omitted her opportunities in life. Which did when it came to English class when the question  “Sunset is to nightfall as…” Tan found hard to answer because she couldn’t connect all the possible analogy pairs “the only way i would have gotten that answer right would have been to imagine an associative situation”

Coming from a household where both parents are immigrants that speak Spanish I learn Spanish from a very young age and once I started school I learned English. Now, I wasn’t conscious of the way I spoke English and Spanish. I would speak Spanglish with my parents which is a mix of English and Spanish at once and they wouldn’t be able to fully understand me and I wasn’t able to fully communicate with them because sometimes finding a word in Spanish would be much more difficult than finding a word in english. This frustrated me at times not being able to fully communicate with and understand my parents . Once I started to spend most of my time at school we had to speak english to communicate with others and the problem of expressing myself at home with my parents started to become more difficult. My parents were always scared that i would forget or not speak Spanish anymore so some rules were established . Once i got home Spanish was the only language i was able to speak no english. If i had difficulties with finding a word on the internet or describing the object to my parents would have to the solution, to this day we only speak Spanish in the house just so we don’t forget the language, because as my father says the more languages you know the better. And I am grateful my parent pushed the rule of Spanish in the household because I am now able to help other in the outside world being able to know and understand two languages has truly become a gift.

After reading “Literacy Behind Bars” By Malcolm X, the narrative that anyone incarcerated would feel free in prison, suggests that the relationship between freedom and literature does not exist and one does not need to be free in order to become literate. X was incarcerated and learned how to read and write more fluently while serving his sentence. When he was serving his time in Charlestown prison, he first became interested in literacy due to a fellow inmate when he writes, “It had first really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge” (X 577). X became envious of the abundance of knowledge one of his fellow inmates had and wanted to learn more in order to increase his own intelligence. He first started with the use of a dictionary to increase his knowledge when he writes, “I saw the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary to study, to learn some words” (X 577). X’s ability to learn more about literacy reinforces the idea that one does not need to be free in order to become literate and even he had a chance to become literate. After some time the efforts of X were paying off when he writes, “I was so fascinated that I went on- I copied the dictionary’s next page. And the same experience came when I studied that” and “With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history” (X 579). As he went on, he was slowly learning while being incarcerated at the same time serving his sentence, proving that while still imprisoned physically, mentally he was still free. When X’s word base broadened he finally had the ability to read a full on book when he states, “I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up my book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying” and “Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened” (X 579). X’s ability to finally read opened up a new world to him certainly proving how free he was within his mind. Malcolm X’s journey to learning to read proved that one does not need to be free in order to be literate.

Language plays an important role in Amy Tan’s life. Amy grew up in a family that does not speak English well, people call it “Broken English” because Amy’s mother is not an English native speaker, Amy learns English in school, and then English become part of her life, we can come to this conclusion when Amy says: “I am fascinated by language in daily life. I send a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language – the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all – all the Englishes I grew u with” thanks to being a writer Amy realized who important is the language when someone tries to express their emotions and feelings.

People who learn English as a second language are constantly aware of the way language is used around, I can speak by myself saying that I am constantly aware of the way people used English around me as a way to improve my pronunciation and writing, this has a big impact in me because thanks to this I improve my pronunciation with some words that have been difficult to me to pronounce by the accent of my first language, I can say that I have the same experiences that Amy with my mother because her English is not perfect I sometimes I have to speak with someone that she does not understand because I’m the one that “speaks it well”. in conclusion Amy loved the English language and the way she can evoke her emotions.

Language played an essential part in Amy’s life. Her experiences helped her understand the significance of language. They taught her that language is just not about how you speak and hear it, but it’s about what the person conveys, their intent, and passion the person holds when speaking. Language shaped her perception of herself because she has always seen English as a challenge growing up because of her mom’s broken English. In school, she struggled in English classes and never got the grades she wanted. But instead of her sticking with the perception of herself that she will never be good at English. She did the opposite and “became an English Major my first year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med.” She broke down her barriers and challenged herself to achieve the very thing she thought she couldn’t do.

Amy became aware of her own language bias when she was talking in front of a room of people and caught herself speaking English in a way that she has never spoken before in front of her mom. All her life, she’s been used to hearing and even has described her mother’s English as “broken” when she stated, “Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English.” Although some people might consider her mother’s English as broken. They can still somewhat understand her but choose not to. This shows how people, even when they know and get the gist of what you’re saying, will pretend as if they don’t understand you if your English is not perfect. This is how Tan realized language bias in other people. When her mother asked the doctors for her CAT Scan in the hospital, they were giving her a hard time. As soon as someone “who spoke in perfect English” got involved “–lo and behold– we had assurances the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held…” The doctors knew what Tan’s mom was asking for but gave her a hard time just because they could. 

I think that people who are raised in non-English speaking households are always aware of how language is used around them because it’s different to them. The way they hear the language at home is not the same way they might hear it in school or at work. At first, I used to be very aware of how English was used around me. The English I would hear at home and at school was two very completely different things. At home, my sisters and I would always speak Spanglish. We would start off talking in English, and out of nowhere, use a few Spanish words here and there. The English that I would hear in school was what one might consider “proper” English.

Language played a major role in Amy Tan’s life. Amy grew up with an m0m who spoke “broken” English and had to speak for her mom the majority of the time. Amy always felt ashamed that no one could understand what her mom was saying. For example, Amy states,” I was ashamed of her English.”. No one took her mom seriously because she couldn’t speak proper English, even her mom noticed that no one took her seriously. This affected the way Amy perceived herself. She feels like because she grew up in a family who spoke “broken” English, it affected the way she performed on her exams. Amy states, “But I do think that the language spoken in the family… plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results on achievements tests, I.Q. tests, and the SAT.”. She excelled in other subjects like Math or Science, but English was always something she struggled with. Amy became aware of her language biases when she noticed that the way she speaks with people who aren’t close to her varies from the way she speaks with her mom and husband. When giving her speech, she noticed that her mom as never heard her speak in this type of English. As stated, “And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her.”.

As a person who lives in a household with parents who don’t speak or understand English clearly, I believe they are aware of the way English is being used around them. People raised in a non-English household speak or pronounce words differently so their parents would understand compared to how they would talk in school or work. Most probably don’t even speak English at home and only communicate in their native language. I am aware of how English is used around me because, in my household, my mom and dad also speak “broken” English. majority of the time I only speak Albanian with my parents and only speak English with my siblings. Like Amy Tan, I believe my parent’s lack of English has affected the way I perform in English exams and why I feel English is my worse subject.

Language was a constant source of challenge in Amy Tan’s life. English specifically, challenged Amy in both school and her professional life. For example, “While my English skills were never judged as poor, compared to math, English could not be considered my strong suit”(14). This shows that despite the fact that Amy is a professional writer, English posed a challenge for her in school. In addition, “At I first I wrote using what I thought to be wittily crafted sentences, sentences that would prove I finally had mastery over the English language”(19). Even while beginning her career as a writer of fiction, Amy still felt challenged by the language and struggled to craft sentences that would prove that she had overcome the challenge of English. Language had shaped Amy, it made her feel as if she had something to prove, something that could only be proved with the mastery of English. Amy’s writing was her way of disproving assumptions made about her based on her culture and the many versions of English she spoke. The many variations of English that Amy used, either at home or professionally, made her acutely aware of the fact that there are many ways to communicate within the English language, even ones that weren’t deemed proper. Amy says that the term “broken English” makes her cringe, this is indicative of her acknowledgment that language can be used many ways and is not in need of mending if it works as a form of communication.

I think that people who learn English as a second language or grow up in households that speak multiple languages are probably more in tune with the language than people who are native speakers or speak solely English. To hear a native speaker speak the language you are learning makes you more aware of how you and others around you speak that language because you feel like you’re constantly studying by listening to how others are speaking. I do like to listen to how people pronounce their words or what words they chose. I relate to Amy cringing at the thought of broken English because I feel like there’s a misconception that the way people from The Bronx speak is not proper. However, I don’t think that the way we talk makes us lesser English speakers.

There are many people out there that come from immigrant families who feel the same way Amy did. They don’t realize that this is a gift, a gift that will play a major role later on. The narrative, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan clearly outlines why language played a major role in her life. The fact that Amy’s mother spoke “broken” English or rather “limited” English made Amy feel a certain way towards her mother. Amy felt uncomfortable when she would have to go out in public with her, “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” For the reason that she spoke “broken” English, outsiders would treat her differently, or didn’t even take her seriously. Although, the role of being a translator for her mother molded her own perception of herself. Amy began to realize that her mother’s language shaped the way she saw and expressed things. “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.” Amy mentions, because of this she understood the difference between her language and others, where it had an effect on her achievement tests. Amy asked herself, “Why are there few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs?” This made her conceive the fact that there are many other families out there that are looked at for speaking, “broken” English. Because of the challenges she faced with her mother, Amy has a reason as to why she started writing.

To my mind, it is true that many people who learn a second language or are raised in a non-English household are constantly aware of the way language is used around them. Not only does this enhance language skills, but your brain automatically recognizes the difference in which the language is being used. Since I come from a non-English speaking household and immigrant parents, I realize the contrast of how I use my language in public as to how I use my language at home and with relatives. I have encountered the same experience Amy Tan mentioned, where I would have to speak for my parents on the phone and in-stores. However, I never felt ashamed of this, but more felt proud that as a daughter, I had the ability to manifest sympathy and respect to my parents. As I got older, I began to realize that coming from immigrant parents’ was an endowment.