How Immigrants Change Your Writing
For this assignment, I read Amy Tan’s short story works such as, “Fish Cheeks,” “Two Minutes about Ghosts,” “Two Kinds,” “Rules of the Game,” and “Mother Tongue.” Amy Tan has a very specific writing style, which gives away her personality, not just as a writer, but as a whole. Tan uses the element of short, effectual sentences to portray her immigrant-raised childhood and the impact of having what she calls “limited English” surround her for her entire adolescence.
In “Mother Tongue,” a memoir-like short story by Amy Tan, she recounts how her mother’s native language has shaped how she speaks now. She writes about how she talks with her mom, and the stark difference between that language, her home language, versus her professional language. Tan describes that now she talks with her mother the same way her mother spoke to her when she
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was growing up. Everything her mother says is in quick, minimally descriptive sentences. When she speaks, she says sentences like “mean gives lots of respect,” instead of saying, “Being mean to others gains Chinese people a lot of respect.” Being brought up in this environment impacted Tan’s professional writing tenfold, because now instead of having long, descriptive sentences, she utilizes many short sentences that piece together to become intense imagery. In Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds,” her character writes about her parent’s desire to have a prodigy for a daughter. When she fails to become one, she critiques herself as a “sad, ugly girl.” Although this sentence could have been combined with the sentences around it to create one string of thoughts from the character, she chose instead to have brief bursts of thought, probably unknowingly, because that is the way Amy Tan herself thinks. In “Rules of the Game,” Amy Tan writes using short sentences not just for the Chinese characters that Waverly encounters, but also Waverly’s thoughts themselves. Her mom speaks in segments of what sentences should be, like when she is answering Waverly’s question about Chinese torture. While most parents would answer a question completely using one sentence, Waverly’s mom answers with “Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture.” Amy Tan clearly models the conversation format of her immigrant characters after the way her real mother talks. This characterizes her as a respectful daughter and trustworthy writer, who the reader can depend on to depict the speech patterns of a Chinese immigrant correctly. Furthermore, Waverly’s thoughts are precise, although not inhibited. When playing important games of chess, Waverly describes a wind that tells her what moves to play. This “wind,” in actuality just her thoughts, speaks in terse murmurs, giving her all the secrets of a winning player. Making Waverly’s thoughts appear as condensed gusts of wind indicates how Amy Tan thinks. Tan must be a straightforward, quick-on-the-draw person and writer to portray her character’s thoughts as such. Tan’s “Two Kinds” is a short story about a girl who is forced to become a prodigy, even when she has nothing to become a prodigy in.
It is written in First Person Point of View, however the entire short story is written in past tense, after the death of the main character, Jing-Mei’s, mother. In describing her piano teacher, Old Chong, she uses many concise descriptions of the man. “He was deaf,” but that was not all; he also had a habit of shouting out critiques, screeching “key! Treble! Bass! No sharps or flats! So this is C major!” for the entire duration of the lesson. Having Jing-Mei as an adult recount the happenings of these lessons shows Amy Tan’s fond memories of her childhood, and how she viewed adults. Although Jing-Mei undoubtedly viewed her teacher as ridiculous, she still remained respectful and cognizant of her strict Chinese upbringing, which Amy Tan experienced as well. Presumably, Amy Tan had an eccentric Chinese adult in her life when she was growing up as well, and, like Jing-Mei, she had to hold in her true opinions of her elders because she was an honorable Chinese
daughter.
“Se Habla Español,” is written by a Latin author, Tanya Barrientos; and Amy Tan, a Chinese author, wrote “Mother Tongue”. In both literate narratives the authors write about their experiences with language and how it impacted their lives. In This essay we will be discussing the similarities as well as the differences in the stories and the authors of “Se Habla Español” and “Mother Tongue”. We will discuss how both authors use a play on words in their titles, how language has impacted their lives, how struggling with language has made them feel emotionally, and how both authors dealt with these issues.
The first article is “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. The author tells a story of her relationship with her mother whose English is poor in comparison to that of most Americans. The author is well versed in English since she was schooled in the United States. (Tan 37) The author begins with an introduction to her mother’s style of language. She explains that it is her language that she and her mother share, and it is a “language of intimacy.” (36) Tan makes sure to point out that it is not difficult for her to understand what her mother says. After this introduction Tan begins to tell the reader about stories of how her mother’s limited English had affected her. She writes that she had been ashamed of her mother’s unintelligible English. Her story is about a time when she had to make a phone call for her mother and how she had noticed the way others passed her mother off as a nuisance. Her next story had a similar...
Mother Tongue by Amy Tan was one of the best short stories I have ever read and I am excited to analyze it. Tan was born in California to Chinese immigrants. She writes in her story about the struggles she faced with language. Tan makes great use of ethos, pathos and logos in her essay to make her claim that there are many Englishes, and none should be considered wrong.
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.
The Essay written by Amy Tan titled 'Mother Tongue' concludes with her saying, 'I knew I had succeeded where I counted when my mother finished my book and gave her understandable verdict' (39). The essay focuses on the prejudices of Amy and her mother. All her life, Amy's mother has been looked down upon due to the fact that she did not speak proper English. Amy defends her mother's 'Broken' English by the fact that she is Chinese and that the 'Simple' English spoken in her family 'Has become a language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk' (36). Little did she know that she was actually speaking more than one type of English. Amy Tan was successful in providing resourceful information in every aspect. This gave the reader a full understanding of the disadvantages Amy and her mother had with reading and writing. The Essay 'Mother Tongue' truly represents Amy Tan's love and passion for her mother as well as her writing. Finally getting the respect of her critics and lucratively connecting with the reaction her mother had to her book, 'So easy to read' (39). Was writing a book the best way to bond with your own mother? Is it a struggle to always have the urge to fit in? Was it healthy for her to take care of family situations all her life because her mother is unable to speak clear English?
Writers like Amy Tan, use rhetorical writing to display emotional appeal, tone, style, and even organization. In Tan’s article, Mothers Tongue, she writes about her experiences with her mother's inability to speak English. She provides examples from her childhood of being discriminated, and stereotyped because of her race. Tan addresses cultural racism without showing any anger or specifically pointing out racism. She makes the reader realize that immigrants have to deal with discrimination, and disrespect in their daily lives. She uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to let the reader see what she went through in her early childhood experiences. Her audience reaches out to families who speak “broken English”, and have to deal with being discriminated, and disrespected.
In the work of Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue” she provides a look into how she adapted her language to assimilate into American culture. She made changes to her language because her mother heavily relied on her for translation. She was the voice of her mother, relaying information in standard English to those who were unable to understand her mother’s broken english. She tells about her mother’s broken english and its impact on her communication to those outside their culture. Her mothers broken english limited others’ perception of her intelligence, and even her own perception of her mother was scewed: Tan said, “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mothers ‘limited’ English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” (419) The use of standard english was a critical component to Tan’s assimilation into American culture. Standard English was an element she acquired to help her mother but more importantly is was an element that helped in her gain success as a writer. Tan changed her ‘Englishes’ (family talk) to include standard English that she had learnt in school and through books, the forms of English that she did not use at home with her mother. (417-418) Tan realized the ch...
The author, Amy Tan is a fictional writer who is “fascinated by language in daily life” and inscribes her love for language into her work. As the article, “Mother Touge” progressed into the beginning paragraphs, she realized the different types of “Englishes” she uses. She was giving a speech to an audience with her mother in the crowd about her new book when she realized the language she speaks to the audience is different from her conversation with her mom. Then, later in the book she was walking with her husband and mother and noticed one of her “Englishes”. This type of English, “No waste money that way”, was a personal language that she only used around her family. She did not speak this “limited” language in public or professional settings because of judgment and disrespect. She
Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as “broken” and “fractured”, Amy Tan’s love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of English that surrounded her. In her short essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one’s inability to speak the way society expects. Disallowing others to prove their misconceptions of her, Tan exerted herself in excelling at English throughout school. She felt a need to rebel against the proverbial view that writing is not a strong suit of someone who grew up learning English in an immigrant family. Attempting to prove her mastery of the English language, Tan discovered her writing did not show who she truly was. She was an Asian-American, not just Asian, not just American, but that she belonged in both demographics. Disregarding the idea that her mother’s English could be something of a social deficit, a learning limitation, Tan expanded and cultivated her writing style to incorporate both the language she learned in school, as well as the variation of it spoken by her mother. Tan learned that in order to satisfy herself, she needed to acknowledge both of her “Englishes” (Tan 128).
The purpose of Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue,” is to show how challenging it can be if an individual is raised by a parent who speaks “limited English” (36) as Tan’s mother does, partially because it can result in people being judged poorly by others. As Tan’s primary care giver, her mother was a significant part of her childhood, and she has a strong influence over Tan’s writing style. Being raised by her mother taught her that one’s perception of the world is heavily based upon the language spoken at home. Alternately, people’s perceptions of one another are based largely on the language used.
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,
In the essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she states that “ Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use.” This wasn’t something I really thought pertained to me until I thought about it a little more. As I thought about it, it did I would change how I talked depending on who I was around or texting. As I read this essay I was thinking that this was more about someone who English is a second language, but it’s not we all have a different way of talking to certain people.
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Across Cultures. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Singleton. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999. 26-31.
Incidentally the non-existent knowledge of mother tongue creates barriers between their personal lives and in connection to their family (Wisco). When children don’t learn their mother tong...