Analysis Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

Her mother’s inability to speak proper English makes her the target for discrimination in the various institutions and Tan is embarrassed about it initially. However, when she eventually gets past this, it opens her eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. In the essay, she talks about how people’s way of speaking to members of their family is different from how they talk to other people while out in the public. She also describes how people have a completely different language that they use when speaking within the confines of their families and a totally different language altogether when they are speaking out in public. To illustrate this, she uses her own experiences, talking about her mother and how the way she communicates to her mother proves that people have a different way in which they speak to their family.

Tan then goes ahead to tell her audience that she is a writer and that she has always been passionate about language: “I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always love language” (Tan 34). By doing this, Tan dispels any doubts as to whether or not she is competent enough to be even talking to people about the English language, as may have been struck by her initial statement where she asserts that she is not a scholar of English or literature. By doing this, Tan is able to successfully use her qualifications and skills as a writer to appeal to her audience by convincing them that in spite of her Chinese background and not so rich English background, she knows what she is talking about when it comes to the English language.

At this point, she has earned the respect and trust of her audience and has now set the stage to tell the story of her journey with the English language. Instead, she rises above the societal expectations of her and becomes a renowned writer and from her work, you wouldn’t even tell that she has had any struggles with the language at any given point in her life unless she mentions it. This essay is just not about Tan’s description of her love and passion for language; it touches on the cultural and social differences brought about by language differences. It is an encouragement to everyone that speaking “broken English” does not necessarily mean that one is any less intelligent and neither does it limit their capacity to become anything they set their mind on.