Language had a secluded presence in Amy Tan’s life. Although she wasn’t the most academically skilled at it, she understood the importance of speaking and how language is interchangeable. Her own perspective of herself was that she doesn’t conform to certain ideas of the English language. She was thinking in a broader way than the rules of grammar permitted and interacting with her family more intimately than how conversational/casual English would dictate. As a child she learned of code-switching and how differently a situation could play out when done properly. For Amy’s mother, “broken” English was a primary form of communication in a language that was foreign to her. She did her best to express her grievances and ask questions to business officials with her limited English. However, bias and preconceived notions about people with “tampered” English exist heavily in American culture; in some cases, Amy would have to take over and present herself as her mother in order to avoid the bias. “The fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her”(Mother Tounge, Tan). The idea of “proper English” gives an image of superiority from one person to another. The listener sees the speaker as an educated person, a person of status, etc. Broken English gives off the idea that none of those features apply to the speaker and is less deserving of service and/or respect. 

 

In personal experience, my vernacular differentiates between my family, friends, teachers, and co-workers. My mother was in a similar place as Mrs. Tan. She came to America in her 20’s with very little knowledge of English and only understood what she could from TV and her co-workers. She attended school for a while before marrying my father and proceeding to have my siblings and I. However, my father could be seen as far more skilled in English than my mother. He attended universities in Sudan, Scotland, and the United States before securing his P.H.D. and teaching for the next 20 years. My childhood consisted of helping my father with his grading and coursework, which elevated my knowledge of “professional English” and allowed me to excel in ELA in school whilst my mother would communicate in English and Arabic simultaneously; I was interacting with two different worlds and understanding different languages. Non-English households give insight into the importance of communication and how they can interpret any form of English because at some point, that same version was used in their own homes.