Language played a major role in Amy Tan’s life. Amy and her family are from China. Therefore, English is not her primary language. “The way it can evoke an emotion, a visual imagine, a complex idea, or simple truth”. However she refers to English as Englishes, as if there is more than one. This is due to the difference in the language spoke at home and outside. “It suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of all the forms of standard English that I had learn in schools and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.

Her passion for language and her perfect English is due to her mother. She referred to her mother’s English as “broken” and “limited”, and is rather ashamed of it. she is ashamed of her mother’s English not because is broken but because,”Her English reflected the quality of what she had to say the is, because she pressed them imperfectly her thought were imperfect”. The fact that her mother was not taken seriously due to her English compel her to be a writer. This conveys a bias conception of her own language and that of others. People describe it as limited, uneducated, and due to that people with limited English are not taken seriously, “The fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurant did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand, or even acted as if they did not hear her”. However, to Tan, “Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world”

Her mother’s English helped her become a writer because it made her get out of the Asian stereotypes in America. “Why do so. many Chinese students go into engineering!… And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home high also be described as ‘broken’ or ‘limited’. And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them aways from writing and into math and science, which os what happened to me”. This realization she had on the stereotypes for Asians made her writer. As Tan states, ” her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of the speech and the nature of her thoughts”. Therefore, if her mother can also do this, why can’t she be a writer and portray that in her fictions?

I believe that people whom’s second language is English or grow p in a non English household are very aware of the way language his used around them. I, Spanish being may primary language, am always aware pf the English used around me. many people refer to me as a ‘hick’ or are always saying, ” I can see that you are Latina for the way you speak”. is there a way to sound English? If I can get my pint across, does it matter how I speak? This has always made me ashamed. However, it makes me feel powerful because I speak two different languages and not many people could do that. It makes me feel powerful because I achieved that through arduous work and only own.

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