Analysis Of My Mother By Amy Tan

Tan communicates that her mother’s “limited” English also limited her perception of her mother’s thoughts. She stated, “I believe that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” This statement struck a relatable feeling within me because I too have grown up with a mother whose English is limited. Unlike the author, however, my mother is American but with little education. I often find myself spelling everyday words such as “Success” or “accommodate” and the gut wrenching feeling of guilt that ensues because I feel a superiority of intelligence over her. The way that Amy explained how bank associates or department store associates did not take her mother seriously hit home in the fact that due to my mother’s shortage of intelligible words, she too is never taken seriously or given good service. It is then that I find myself telling the associate the educated version of when my mother would say, “yawl need to fix that, uh uh!” in her heavy southern drawl and they’d follow with, “excuse me?” However, in all my hesitation, I feel as though I have a responsibility to enlighten my mother of the “proper” way to speak, all while harboring feelings of

When venturing to new places I feel a sense of vulnerability and maybe even paranoia when I don’t feel as though I am equal in speech. What I have come to think is that it is human nature to look for familiarity in your surroundings. I can recall my first venture to Houston’s China Town and feeling misplaced because I couldn’t pronounce pho correctly. I settled for just calling it “the noodle soup with the stuff in it.” Total embarrassment. And then there was the time I went into the Ghandi district for some authentic curry and could barely understand the menu. I searched for something that might connect me to what has been known to me for years. I then found myself attempting to understand their “broken” English to no