Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary

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Different Types of English In the essay “Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tan, she claims to know more than one type of English. The different kinds of Englishes that she describes in her essay is a “proper”, Standard American English and a “broken”, informal English. She uses proper English when speaking publicly and uses the broken English for more casual settings, such as when she is talking with family or friends. However, are the different Englishes that she is referring to, actually separate languages or are they the same language said different due to misunderstanding or difficulty when learning the language? Throughout the essay, the author, Amy Tan mentions her Chinese immigrant mother’s speech and how it has overall impacted her life. She …show more content…

However, the one she refers to in her Essay seems more like a simplified version of English that her and her family uses either because it is their second learned language or because they are simply more comfortable using a less formal English in the comfort of their own home.The differences between a new language and the languages spoken about in Tan’s essay is structure. For the most part, a language is typically written or spoken in a structured manner. According to the Oxford English dictionary definition, language is “the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.” This is most likely so that a language can be easily understood or learned by people outside the community of people who use the language. I do not believe that the different forms of English Tan describes could be any more than just a spin on the language. “Slang” is more like how I would describe it. “A type of language that consists of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people.”(Oxford English

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