Language, to Amy Tan, served as a type of obstacle/challenge that she would eventually get over. Having grown up in a non-English speaking household, she states, “[M]y mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well”. Through her struggle of being in this type of household, she became more inclined to doing math and sciences, due to these subjects having only one answer compared to English where there are many “judgement calls” and answers that require “personal experience”. However, Tan would shape herself into a writer, wanting to go against the grain and becoming an English major, rather than staying enrolled in pre-med. Personally, I do not believe that many people who learn English as a second language are constantly aware of the way language is used around them as they try to use their own understanding of what they know to understand the world around them, which , often times, is limited. This is not the usual case all of the time, however, an example being my parents, both of which learned English as their second language, but they’ve lived in the U.S for a long time so they have adjusted to things. Moreover, I believe that those who are raised in non-English speaking households are capable of being aware of how language is used around because they would need to understand English and formulate it in such a way that their parents may be able to understand. However, as before, this may not be the usual case for many people living in a non-English household, as they may not fully be aware of the use of language, grasping the basics to simply understand. As for myself, I think that I am aware of how English is being used around me, having English be my first language growing up and never really taking the time to learn my family’s language, Khmer.

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