Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine and social habits. It includes the groups we are born into, such as race, gender, class or religion as well as the groups we join or become a part of. It is a lifestyle of gathering individuals; the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they acknowledge, generally without contemplating them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. Culture is important because it allows people to remain unique in society. Many cultures have a lot in common but also differs greatly. All cultures differ immensely that someone in the same culture may disagree with the behaviors, beliefs and …show more content…
While my parents conformed to the social norms even when they didn’t want to, one of the most important things they did was exhibit to us our culture. Growing up with parents that were born in the Philippines, I’ve learned to understand and communicate through Tagalog but also conform to the English language when communicating to others outside my family. I’ve needed to adjust the way I communicated to others. Tagalog is the language I’m most comfortable with and I never felt embarrassed to speak to my parents in front of others in our language. In the story Mother Tongue, Amy Tan brings the Chinese American experience to life, exploring how individuals craft complex identities while confronting the challenges and possibilities of transferring cultural borders. Tan believes, “It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with” (164). My brother and I often had friends come over to our house. When meeting my parents, they then shifted their language from Tagalog to English. It was evident to others that my parents weren’t proficient in the English language. But the “broken” English is the form of communication I’ve grown to know and love. Even though the individuals that have come into my home question what my parents are saying to me, I am able to understand and communicate back to them and that’s all …show more content…
by Francois Grosjean asks us to consider how switching between language’s might alter one’s personality and sense of self. When my parents moved to America, they took with them the same behaviors, beliefs and values they were raised to know in the Philippines. They felt that they should always treat others equally and treat others the way they wanted to be treated even when they were treated poorly; they always kept composure. Their beliefs and values remained the same when coming to America, if anything they were able to practice beliefs they were unable to practice in the Philippines. But when it came to their language, they conformed to society. Grosjean reveals, “Bilinguals use their language for different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people” (171). This acknowledges that people whose first language was not English will adjust what language they use depending on the situation and location. One may talk to a superior a different way than talking to a friend. We behave differently based on the environment situation. Similar to language, individuals will use English for certain situations and their own language for other
Language is an important part of who we are. It influences the way we think and behave on a great scale. However, sometimes it is forced upon us to go in different directions just so we can physically and mentally feel as if we belong to the society in which we live in. Just as we see in Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez’s “A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, both authors faced some challenges along the way by coping with two different languages, while still trying to achieve the social position which they desired.
Amy Tan’s article “Mother Tongue,” was a remarkable eye opener where she subtly informs her readers about cultural racism, and how difficult it can be living in America without the proficient knowledge of American culture and language. She shares different thought-provoking stories of her mother as a Chinese immigrant, being treated unequally because she speaks poor English. Tan is shedding light about the corruption regarding cultural ideals, as well as proving her arguments concerning the power of language, and that it is very uncommon to find multiple of people speaking the exact same English. Throughout the piece, Tan uses different forms of persuasion such as credibility, sympathy, and reason, to appeal to her audience as she writes and
If you are not fluent in a language, you probably don 't give much thought to your ability to make your personality attractive, to be in touch with the people and be understood in your world, that doesn’t mean you are an underestimated person. Every person has something special to make them more unique, remarkable, and gorgeous between people. The opinions could lead towards success, or those opinions could be one that is losing, and have a negative impact on how people connect with you. In Amy Tan 's “Mother Tongue” she made this book for several reasons. She had started her life by learning language, and she always loved to spend her time to learn language, but this story focuses about Amy Tan 's mother with her terrible English,
What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".
“Mother Tongue” is an essay that show the power of language and how Amy Tan uses the many forms of English and the different ways in which the language she knew impacted her life. I feel connected to Tan’s essay because I also come from a multilingual home. I have smart emigrant parents who are educated, but even though they are educated they still need my help with communicating with people occasionally. I believe the most important idea in Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is the limitation that an imperfect English can cause in a society and the richness that such English can bring to
The Essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan focuses on Tan’s perception of the way her mother spoke and how it shaped and ignited her need and love for English. Even with Tan’s advanced Knowledge of the English Language she still found that she spoke on several occasions with her mother's Broken English. That is when she learned that using this form of English could benefit her. Even with the constant negativity and struggle of speaking broken English she thrived and prospered in her field. Because I did not grow up with immigrant parents Language has not affected my life as greatly as it has Amy Tan’s.
In the essay “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan, the author, gives a different, a more upbeat outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing which helps the audience understand what is being presented at ease. Her mother plays an important role in her outlook of language, because she helps her realize that language not only allows one to be a part of a culture but create one’s identity in society. Amy Tan shares her real life stories about cultural racism and the struggle to survive in America as an immigrant without showing any emotions, which is a wonderful epiphany for the audience in realizing
While talking amongst intellectuals and in professional settings like her speech seminar, she spoke in Standard English using what she learned and adapted from what was taught in school. She realized there was a slight difference in the way she communicated with people she is close to. There was a pattern in the way she speaks around them. For example her mother and her husband can’t tell the difference whether she is speaking “broken, fractured or limited” English. Even though her mom can’t speak “perfect” Standard English, don’t misjudge because she can actually understand a lot. She reads and comprehends a lot from reading the Forbes report, listening to Wall Street Week, talking with her stockbroker to reading books. Some of her friends tell her that they can understand 50 percent of what her mother is saying. Some only understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of what she is saying, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to Amy, her mother 's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. People all around judged her as an outcast because it wasn’t perfect English as people expected. Amy witnessed firsthand examples of how her mom was being mistreated repeatedly. The fact that people did not take her seriously, they did not give her good service, they pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her in many places was a clear sign she was being taken advantage of. That resorted her mother to realize her simple English wasn’t essential to converse with others with the help of her daughter. She needed her daughter to impersonate her over the phone just to get her point across. Amy now notices most immigrants and families usually influence one another by the way they speak. That plays as a big role in shaping the language of
Culture is a set of beliefs, values and attitudes that a person inherits from a society or a group that they are in and they learn how to view the world and how to behave, these principles can then be passed down from generation to generation so that the culture that has been inherited can live on for
Thus, children adopt mother tongue at home because it is the type of language heard and learned since birth. The author wrote,” I was walking down the street with my mother and again found myself conscious of the English I was using, and English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this’ Not waste money that way’”263). People issued from immigrant families and born in the USA communicate with limited English to their relatives. However; while communicating outside of their private circle, they speak properly to correspond to the American Standard English.
“I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with,” Amy Tan says in her essay “Mother Tongue” (268). Tan is referring to the fact that she varies her type of language based on her audience. Once Tan realized this, she began to write books with her different types of English, instead of just using one kind of English for writing books. Tan was born in America to parents who were a Chinese immigrants. English was Tan’s mother’s second language, so as a result, Tan grows up in a house where English isn’t perfect. Tan learns to speak different types of English with different groups of people. Tan’s personal life examples of different Englishes shows the idea that all people have several different types of English.
Tan describes her communication with her mother versus communication in her writings, recalling an instance when “...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” (Tan, 2016, p. 316). Although Tan’s mother understands her language, her mother has a difficult time relating with the type of English Tan utilizes. As a consequence, a person’s limited language negatively impacts his or her communication with
Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people…Culture in its broadest sense of cultivated behavior; a totality of a person’s learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning (http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html).
Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behavior. It includes the ideas, value, customs and artifacts of a group of people (Schaefer, 2002). Culture is a pattern of human activities and the symbols that give these activities significance. It is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold and activities they engage in. It is the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment, which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms and modes of organization thus distinguishing people from their neighbors.
The term “culture” refers to the complex accumulation of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and provide a general identity to a group of people. Cultures take a long time to develop. There are many things that establish identity give meaning to life, define what one becomes, and how one should behave.