Analysis "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan

Amy Tan’s "Mother Tongue" is an inspiring article about the effects of the English language on Amy Tan daily life. As a child, Tan recognized that her mother had a terrible time with English, frequently having to speak for her so she could be taken seriously. how that affected her childhood and how it molded her to become the writer that she is.

The article, encourage the readers to understand her frustration and see the experiences she had growing up.

Which is what made her into the woman and writer that she is today. She is characterizing herself because she shares her personal feelings and how those shaped her life as a writer. The setting she uses is in the past when she was growing up .The article offers plenty of details where the readers can understand and empathize. Tan explained that her mother’s English had no direct bearing on her intelligence. Tan’s quote "Don’t judge a book by its cover or someone’s intelligence by her English" is a message telling the readers not to judge someone’s worth by their external appearance or the way they speak English.

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The element was used effectively because it showed the difficulties of growing up with English as a second language because her immigrant mother spoke 'broken' English. Overall I believe the element here made us understand how people regular judge people by the way they talk. The element here describes how desperately she wants everybody to know that her mother was very intelligent and that the way she spoke English had nothing to do with her cleverness.

'You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands.

She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine’s books with ease—all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand. Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese.'

The element was very clear. She is letting us know noticeably her mother is a very intelligent woman and just because her English was not perfect that did not mean that she was not extremely smart and well educated.