Mother Tongue By Amy Tan And Richard Rodriguez

The Language of Love
The writings of Amy Tan and Richard Rodriguez’s depicts a bilingual story based on two differing culture. On Mother Tongue, “Tan explores the effect of her mother’s “broken” English on her life and writing” (506). On the other hand, Richard Rodriguez “recounts the origin of his complex views of bilingual education through Public and Private Language” (512). From a child’s eyes, Tan and Rodriguez describe each joys and pain growing up in a non-English speaking family. Hence, may be viewed that cultural differences plays a major role on how one handles adversities.

In analyzing both writers, Tan and Rodriguez express conflicting emotions. Tan describes her bilingual experience as a language of intimacy, a kind of English

“that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with” (507). From a reader’s perspective, seem to suggest feelings of warmth towards her mother. Unlike Tan’s warm narrative of her Mother’s broken English, Rodriguez’s writing connotes strong feelings of what seem to be a detachment from his parents. As Rodriguez describe, “the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished… gone was the intense feeling of being at home… we [were] once a loving family... “ (514). Hence a statement of differentiation by both writers, not just from a language perspective, but a child’s deeply felt emotions.

The parents influence in the use of English language is apparent on each writer.

Tan’s essay on Mother Tongue depicts a story of a daughter who grew up learning different type of “Englishes” (510). The latter described as the kind of English wherein on may regard as “simple”, yet she fondly refers to as her “Mother’s English”. In addition is the “broken English” or Tan’s mother’s communication style with her. Lastly is Tan’s own translation of her mother’s English that she described as “watered down.” An impression that is distinctly different from Tan’s loving description of her Mother’s English, Rodriguez connotes feelings of detachment. Rodriguez’s childhood consist of traditional catholic educators who expected a non-native speaker communicate in English. As a result, the young Rodriguez socially withdrew which prompt the nun teachers to approach the parents regarding the language issue. Since then, life has changed for Rodriguez, thus the beginning of what seem to be a detachment from his own family. Unlike Tan’s warm story of her Mother’s broken English, Rodriguez’s childhood experience connotes feelings of

detachment.

As both writers placed high value on educational success, they took the English language as a constructive challenge.

Rodriguez views the same as a public and private language. He explains that the term “private” relates to Spanish language, while the term “public” is the kind of English language he speaks outside home. As he writes “… I wrongly imagined that English was intrinsically a public language and Spanish an intrinsically private one…” (513). In addition, Rodriguez’s reference to the English language as a gringo sound gives an impression of a child’s resentment towards said language. The term gringo in Spanish means los gringos which is a “derogatory term for English-speaking Americans” (512). When Rodriguez parents stopped communicating at home in Spanish, the laughter at home faded along with his private language. This further supports Rodriguez’s statement that “… as we learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents” (515). Thus the end of a once full of laughter home, yet the beginning of Rodriguez’s mastery of the English language. Similar to Tan’s experience, the writer’s rebellious nature challenged her critics by proving that Asian’s skills are not limited to Math and Science. Thus, the decision behind to shift from pre-med to English major. As Tan writes, “I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me” (510). Hence Tan’s strong conviction to resist the convention of

skill labeling based on one’s culture. Just the same, Rodriguez claims that his mastery on public language (i.e. English) proved to be an advantage to what he has become today.

Rarely does one get the best of both worlds. One may be considered to be successful yet somehow lost his sense of intimacy behind its language; and another with the same accomplishment, but nevertheless preserved its cultural acquaintance with her mother tongue. As Nelson Mandela quoted, “education is the most powerful weapon that one can use to change the world. Indeed, both minorities proved that education could turn such bilingual adversity into a world of opportunity.