Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary

Author Amy Tan, having grown up with a mother who did not have English as her first language, has experienced a very different set of circumstances than an average English-speaking household when it comes to communicating. In her article, “Mother Tongue,” she dives into her past, sharing the language struggles she saw her mother encounter, along with her own battles with finding her literary voice. What she found in the end was that everyone, regardless of native tongue, uses many levels of language; one then shifts between those levels, depending on who audience is perceived to be at any given time. Tan expresses the need to be more cognizant of these different levels of English, in order to focus on intent instead of complexity. The article's

theme of language reveals the struggles every person can experience in communicating, because anyone can mistakenly judge another's intelligence, anyone can naively stereotype a group, and at the same time, everyone can benefit from focusing on the intent behind someone’s words.
Being able to see and understand the different levels of language people use is fundamentally the most important part of being able to follow the intent behind word choices and improve communication between two sides. Amy Tan’s first revelation to seeing these levels of language is shown in recalling a time when she was giving a speech to a large group. Tan started off thinking everything was going well, until she remembered that her mother was in the audience for the first time. Suddenly, she became acutely aware of the immensely intricate word and phrasing choices she had put into her speech. It was all forms of English she had learned from school and other academic sources, but almost none of those word choices had ever been used at home with her mother, making it feel vastly too complex (Tan 20). This particular memory demonstrates how people inadvertently change their language choices to blend them with the expectations they have of the audience. Tan points out—with her mother being the new element of this audience—the fault of that assumption, as one could come across an audience unable to fully engage with the material. If one creates a balance in the level of word choices, harmonizing between simple phrases and complex wording, a richer depiction for the audience is created. In her instance, the balance was leaning towards too complex, but the opposite can also be true, being too simplistic runs the risk of being insulting to the audience. The intent behind the words should be the focus, not the complexity of the words themselves.
It's also important to not focus on the surface appearance of an audience, judging their competency based on their perceived mastery of language. Both Tan and her mother have been intensely aware of those assumptions most of their lives, as exampled by Amy's direct observations of her mother's intelligence, versus how outside people have imagined her mother's intelligence to be. Tan said of her mother, “She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads Shirley MacLaine's books with ease--all kinds of things I can't begin to understand” (21). Seeing the wide range of complex activities that Tan's mother enjoys in her leisure time helps show hazards and pitfalls of not truly respecting your audience. While Tan always realized the depth of comprehension her mother had, there were many people throughout her life that refused to listen to her mother's intent, instead they only listened to her accent. “When I was a teenager, she used to have me call people on the phone and pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even complain and yell at people who had been rude to her” (22). Also knowing that Tan's mother felt force to use her daughter as a voice surrogate in multiple instances, even though she fully understood English, helps solidify how making assumptions about your audience’s intelligence can be insensitive and in some cases, very insulting. It always circles back to intent, the intention behind the words matter.
Beyond normalizing all levels of English usage, Amy Tan encourages one to think about some stereotypes many people hold of Asian-Americans.

Recalling an experience early in her career, being less than subtly told she'd be better off in a different field, “I was told by my boss at the time that writing was my worst skill and I should hone my talents towards account management,” she contemplates how often other Asian-Americans have been subjected to a similar situation (23). “Why are there few Asian-Americans enrolled in creative writing programs?” she asks. Tan contemplates on how in multiple studies, Asian-Americans overall do better in Mathematics versus English, which pushes her thought process to, “this makes me think there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as 'broken' or 'limited.' And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me” (23). While there is no absolute proof of it happening on a regular basis, Amy Tan's experience allows one to contemplate the ease of such actions. Believing that some people do not have the skill set for writing, based simply on their background is a stereotype that many can inadvertently fall into if one does not take the time to see the individual's personal goals and their will to achieve them. One can imagine, if Amy Tan had not fought against the pressures she faced going into writing, that American

literature would be vastly different without her works. One can also surmise that there are many other students who took their instructors' criticisms to heart and did not pursue their writing dreams. Simply keeping those thoughts at the forefront of the mind, will help some people mitigate actually following through on those misguided perceptions.
Amy Tan’s article, “Mother Tongue,” makes people more conscious of their diverse uses of English throughout their lives.

She attests to the importance of focusing on the intent of words instead of the complexity and warns through events of her own life, the error of judging those who use distinctly different levels of English. Ultimately, she thoughtfully challenges people to contemplate stereotypes that many hold towards Asian-Americans, potentially keeping the world from experiencing their talent in the writing community. Finalizing the right balance of word choice can be a struggle, but if one respects and understands the audience, the intent will propel the writing forward. Having Amy Tan focus our attention on the intent of words versus how they are delivered reveals our penchant to stay within our comfort levels against our best interests when communicating, that it is real work to balance our speech to create a more robust piece of writing or speech. As a listener, moving out of our comfort zone is important, to find common ground. However, Tan has shown us that a writer or speaker, it is best to balance our speech, to make it easier for the audience to grasp the whole vision that is wanted by the author or

speaker.