After reading “Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tan language played an important role in her life. Amy had to learn when to speak English and “broken English.” Language is an important role in her life because of her mother and how she was brought up. Tan spoke about being embarrassed by her mother’s English and stated, “I know this for fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her, I was ashamed of her English.” Tan looked down on her mother and was humiliated by her lack of “standard English,” enough so that Amy was eager to learn and perfect her English so that she wouldn’t sound like her mother. She even blamed her mother’s lack of English as a result of her standardized test scores not being straight A’s when it came to English specifically. Tan stated, “And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, I.Q tests, and the SAT.” The perception she had at a young age of her mother wasn’t super positive but overtime Tan began to realize that her mother’s language was and is unique to her, it also helped shape Tan into the woman that she wanted to be and is today. She has embraced their native dialect and loves how it shows her natural language. Tan not only became aware of her bias towards her mother, but she also realized the bias her mother faced from society, the same society she has been trying so hard to fit into to with “standard English.” This realization allowed Tan to learn to accept her mother’s dialect and begin to embrace it because there isn’t one right way to speak English and that is the beauty of language. Tan spoke about seeing how there are very few Asian Americans writers which she believes is the result of the same fears she faced growing up with being ashamed of the dialect barrier. That many Asian Americans grew up in a “limited” English household. Tan states, “And this makes me think that there are other Asian American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” Perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and pushing them into math and science. I can relate because I am also someone who has been pushed into sciences rather than English for the same reasons. Tan broke that chain and became a successful writer. She spoke about the challenges she faced and how she was able to overcome them. She is passionate and confident in her writing.

I do believe that people that learn English as a second language are constantly aware of the way language is used around them. I come from a family where English is our second language so growing up in a world where English is foreign and then having to learn was hard. My dad taught me and my brothers that we were not to speak in the same language as our friends when talking to him or to other people. He says this because we have to be polite and show respect to others and importantly ourselves. 

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