Language played a big part in Amy Tan’s life. Why wouldn’t it?Amy tan is an author, a writer, and a well known speaker. After reading her short story “Mother tongue” Language greatly influenced her life in manys ways. From Home, to school, to work. The way she spoke always mattered. Usually she would have to speak for her mother for appointments and money which she spoke in a different tone of voice and chose different words and grammar.Which was very different from the way she spoke at home with her mother. She spoke in “broken” english. In my opinion there is no such thing as broken english. She spoke with words and descriptions her mother was very familiar with. She never felt as though she changed the way she spoke with her mother, she always found it normal and never realized that when she made speeches and talked about her books and life she spoke differently. Although it was her and her mother’s way of speaking to each other would be considered as “ broken” it was her “ normal” .Statistically Mrs.Tans perception of herself was that she was somewhat limited in her English comprehension abilities and or may have affected her grades due to her being Asian American and having “broken” english at home. The short story states “..Asian students ,as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English. 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.” And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science. Which is what happened to me.” She became more aware of what her own language biases were and those of others by realizing the way others treated her and the way she talked with certain people. Also, this could be a problem in today’s society where students whose first language is not English who are better at science and math than English due to English teachers who give up on those students and try not to understand tham..People who are raised with English as there second are constantly aware of the word choice they use and say. I have many friends whose second language is English and many times they are corrected by people to speak a certain type of way or to use a different word choice or grammar and I tell them that there is no “ right” or “proper” way of speaking English. Even though my first language is English I am still taught to speak “proper” english. I usually speak with slang which is not professional but it is my norm. Oftentimes I am like Mrs.Tan and I don’t realize that I am speaking differently. I am aware of the way I use English because I want to always say the right thing to get my message across and for others to understand what I am saying.

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