SE 1321 Kalpana Iyengar By Adrian Garza Ovalle Mother Tongue by
Amy Tan
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Summary Mother Tongue written by Amy Tan is an essay where Amy
narrates a story of how she as a little girl always had to help her
mother to explain herself to other people because of her broken
english. The essay starts with Amy giving a speech to a crowd with
her mother present and she realizes she had never spoken that way
in front of her mother, she tend to use a different english in
front of her mother. As the narration goes on Amy gives some
examples of occasions she had to help her mother or even talk by
through the phone as if she was her in order for other people to
take her seriously and give her a good service. Amys mother did not
only limit her
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own possibilities in life but limited Amys possibilities as
well given. Chinese students or Asian americans tend to go into
engineering and teachers might tend to steer those students away
from writing but the rebellious attitude of Amy made her become an
English major and prove people wrong. Apart from what critics had
to say about her writings she knew shw had succeeded when her
mother said her book was easy to read.
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Reflection What this essay made me think about was how your
language limits your thoughts and how you want to express yourself.
Given this issue it will also affect how people think about you,
how people understand you and even how people might treat you. In
the story there are several quotes like because she expressed them
imperfectly her thoughts where imperfect and people in department
stores, banks and restaurants did not take her seriously, did not
give her good service[]. These quotes gave meaning to this essay
for me, I started thinking about my personal problems and what I
feel when I struggle to express the way I really want to
express.
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Language is a very important tool people have, you can send a
clear message to other people by the way you talk, the way you say
things and when you have a broken language you are not able to send
your messages the correct way, even when you have them very clear
on your head you cannot. So after my first year living in the US
and the essay Mother Tongue I am completely sure language can limit
your thoughts but it can also amplify them if it is not
broken.
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Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVYOoMPscjE&featur
e=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVYOoMPscjE&featur
e=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpH5EHEFfIU&feature
=related