Mathews Vargas 

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is a self-reflection on how she speaks, as she begins noticing as she’s giving a speech on her book “The Joy Luck Club” “The talk was going along well enough until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her.”  This was when she began to look back on all the instances where her English had to change based on who she talked to and how that affected her life as she had to speak for herself and her mother growing up. I think this is directed toward those who are of the first generation of immigrants as she talks about her personal life and brings up a lot of instances where someone who’s the descent of someone who can’t speak english very well would be in. and as points out a lot of problems with our society and how poor English speakers are treated she reinforces her personal experiences and how it affected her and her mother. 

And to me these experiences are very similar as I’ve been in a similar situation growing up helping mom and realizing how much me and my mother speak in spanglish as a result of her not speaking very good english and me spanish.

Language is something that is used to communicate a lot of things like your place of origin, your knowledge and sophistication and your place in society as your way of speaking reflects on the kind of person you are perceived as, this is the topic I believe Amy Tan was shining light upon as she uses her and her mothers experience to reinforce her statements. Amy begins by stating “I am not a scholar of English or literature.” this helps to establish a relationship with the readers as not everyone is expected to be refined or renowned in the English language, therefore disassociating herself from people who see themselves as a master of sorts of the english language as they are more likely to be writing in “normal english” now it should noted to her  “normal english” is just one of the many forms of englishes that she learned, and this statement being put early on really help the reader begin to understand what she’s trying to say about language, as even though she just started there’s more than one form of english, to her targeted audience I gives a sense of familiarity as they are most likely to share similar experiences.

 As for Amy she being realizing her use of the many forms of englishes during a speech she was giving a book she had recently published at the time, she noticed as she was giving her speech that something was wrong in the way she was speaking, her english was wrong as she saw her mother was present she realized she was using english she’d never used with her mother “There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus-and-thus”-a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.” She then leads into similaire case when she was with her husband and she found herself speaking the type of English she does with her mother saying things like “not waste money that way.” while talking about furniture and how her mother speaks the same way even giving and example by using a recent conversation she had with her mother and these instances are used to show the different forms of english, as they seem improper and imperfect as it’s not the typical and normalized form of english, that’s commonly used by people who were born into the english language. She brings more attention to that point as she ventures deeper into her childhood, a time where she had to impersonate as her mother as her english was to other more understandable, and this helps relate to the audience as its a common practice among first generation migrants and helps bring to light the many struggles immigrants face as a result of their first language. She then helps reinforce this idea as she gives examples of people trying to take advantage of her mothers inability to speak proper english one being her broker refused to pay her mother and she had to step in and translate for her and then results came as they understood then her mother was ready to talk to there higher ups another example was when her mother being pushed aside when she was waiting for her results to see if her tumore was in a good condition, through this we see the negative experiences her mother had to endor because her english was improper and as a result the people she integrated with tened to treat her as a second class citizen when it came to priorting her needs. This was when she began to look back on all the instances where her English had to change based on who she talked to and how that affected her life as she had to speak for herself and her mother growing up. 

Amy then reflects on how her limited knowledge held her back as she was the only fluent English speaker “Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a per- son’s developing language skills are more influenced by peers. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, IQ tests, and the SAT.” this example was one affect hers mothers english had on her showing the audience how the language around you can affect you as you grow up, it restrained her to her own knowledge but it didn’t affect her options for other topics like math as she managed to persevere as her lounge couldn’t stop her options when it came to math however it also brought to attention of why  people are being drawn away from english “And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.” to show the  impact the people had around her but she pushed past that and became a writer. As she brings attention to the discurments immigrants face to change the way of speaking as there pushed away from where the once stated despite that to Amy her mothers way speaking was perfect as she could feel the passion and emotions in her mothers english showing that not every form of english has to “perfect as she talks the best she can as still puts effort and emotions behind her words even if there neglected by others or seen as improper. And that goes vice versa as whe Amy try to speak chinese to her mother she doesn’t speak it perfectly but it’s enough  for her to understand  ”; my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as “watered down”; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure.” This shows her mother and her have their differences in languages but they have their own that they can communicate with. It’s a mix of the languages that’s seen as proper but it’s what keeps them conceited as they can feel the impact of their words.