Response to Mother Tongue

I personally like this article. Amy Tan, a Chinese-American, tells her story about the use of English in her life. One of her greatest points is how the use of language, especially English, is used by people in a judgmental way. I find that thinking of a person less than who they are by the use of language is wrong. When she was young, she felt that her family and culture brought her down because of English skills. In school, her teachers would try to encourage more math and science rather than English. I liked her point where she said that in math there is only one answer but in English there could be different answers depending on judgment. She said she struggled in English because of how different you would have to think on tests and other assignments. But the story is mostly about her mother. People would describe her mother’s English as broken or fractured and would turn her down or not take her serious. Mrs. Tan found it somewhat embarrassing when she would have to help her mother do tasks like make business calls and help translate to others. She later found that her mother’s speaking was what helped her become so advanced in English. Her family and culture made her realize that this ‘broken language’ was the greatest way to talk and that her complex English needed to be simpler so people like her mother could understand easily.