Analysis Of Amy Tan’s Language Experiences Depicted In Mother Tongue

It is often unfairly described as incapacitation when unable to speak English fluently. When someone can’t convey their thoughts in familiar English to those who are listening, they don’t take them seriously. Some people degrade a person because they see it as a disability. Tan and her mother have both been the victims of this treatment. She notes that her mother’s “limited” English limited her perception of me as a child. Amy also has a mentality that denigrates people with broken English. In the same way as her mother or other people in her immediate vicinity, Amy made life harder for those who didn’t know how to speak English well. Immigrant families have faced a variety of difficulties throughout history, and this has been exacerbated by their race. Tan and Tan’s mother were afraid that they would not be accepted and no-one would see past their Chinese background. Rudolf Gaudio’s lamentation of the severity of discrimination in The Blackness of “Broken English,” echoes these emotions. Exactamndo, for example, is a pseudo-Spanish word that Americans use to make jokes. They also used African American English expressions, such as We Be Growing, Da Crib or Da Crib. When others use this method of communication, English-speaking Americans will not tolerate it. Gaudio argues that “practices linguistic appropriation” have been used in this way to racialize people. There is so much discrimination based on accents that immigrants’ families have difficulty communicating in public.

The discriminatory practices of immigrant parents have forced some to adopt unpopular strategies, like faking identities. In order to avoid the embarrassment caused by a poor grasp of English, some immigrants create fictitious identities. Amy believes that her mother has accepted her bad English. Amy was asked to pretend as her in order to communicate with other English-speaking individuals. She remembers doing the same things her mother normally would do when she called people. In order to deal with her mother’s stockbroker she had to use a “young voice” that was not convincing. Amy’s mum had to pretend to be someone else under Amy’s disguise in order to avoid the scrutiny of others. The English-speaking community has tried to degrade and demean anyone who does not speak fluent English, which has led the latter to use such tactics. English-speaking is a major source of conflict around the globe. English-speaking is still used by both groups to measure each other’s intelligence. The Chomskyans in Ireland and the Whorfians have always argued over who was superior based on English speaking ability.

Both sides are always at odds over whose standard definition of Irishness in English should be. It has been a long-running “verbal battle” over the issue of whether or not language can determine culture and thought, and whether English is an appropriate medium for expressing “Irishness”. This example shows how the issue of English speaking has been overblown to the point that it now includes a person’s authenticity as a member of a specific group. This debate has been polarized by the Irish situation. Amy Tan narrates a subtler form of discriminatory behavior. It is these subtle differences that lead to more serious disagreements. Those who don’t use English as a first language are treated with contempt, no matter what their other achievements may be.

Amy Tan is a victim of discrimination in schools, regardless of her performance in other areas. She admits her English grades weren’t as impressive as the ones she achieved in other subjects such as science and math. Even though she was in the 70th to 60th percentile, she still scored Bs or even B minuses. Tan, by any standard, was a high-performing student and this would have earned her respect. As an immigrant her English was rated as poor, yet her efforts were not considered good enough to “override opinions that my real abilities lie in math and scientific”. This argument shows the use of English as a single measure for immigrants to judge their intelligence. Other grades are also discredited. This school of thinking promotes unfair competition and comparison between English-speaking learners and immigrants. In addition to schools, the efforts of immigrants in learning English are also discredited in public places. Tan complained that immigrants’ accents made them feel less confident to speak out in public. English-speaking individuals would likely appreciate any attempt to speak fluent English.

However, this wasn’t always true. It was common for people to dismiss any attempt at speaking English because the words they used were not understood. Tan said that even though they had been friends for years, some of her friends did not understand when she spoke English. Some of her friends said that they could only understand 80 to 90 percent of the things she said. Others were more harsh and said “they don’t understand anything, as if it was pure Chinese.” Tan’s English mother had clearly put in a lot effort to communicate with her son.