Summary of Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

In this post we will go over the widely read essay โ€˜Mother Tongueโ€˜ by Amy Tan.

About Amy Tan

Amy Tan was born in 1952 in Oakland, California. She is an American novelist, memoirist, and essayist best known for her 1985 novel The Joy Luck Club. Tan and her mother moved to Switzerland in 1966 after her father and brother died of brain tumours. Tan attended high school in Switzerland. She earned a bachelorโ€™s degree in English and a masterโ€™s degree in linguistics from San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Tan worked as a language development consultant and freelance writer for corporations after completing her studies, before producing The Joy Luck Club, which delves into the delicate relationship between Chinese women and their Chinese American daughters. Tan investigates how her mother, a natural Chinese speaker, has influenced her connection with the English language in her essay โ€œMother Tongue.โ€

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Summary of Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue is a brilliant essay by Amy Tan. It was originally published in The Threepenny Reviewย in 1990 as Under Western Eyes. The essay explores the linguistic challenges confronting first and second-generation Chinese settlers in the United States. It is based on Tanโ€™s personal experiences: Cultural & Linguistic Clashes. At home, she spoke broken English; in public, she spoke standard English. Thus, the essay represents the life of a young lady who is juggling multiple identities.

Amy Tanโ€™s โ€˜Mother Tongueโ€™ takes us through linguistics as we join Tan in her depiction of โ€˜broken English,โ€™ which she compares to the standards of English. She is precise in her search, but she also takes the time to inquire and ask what is permissible and regarded proper language and English. Good grammar and excellent English do not arrive or stand as a measure of intelligence in her eyes. She quoted passages of her motherโ€™s work in which she found numerous grammatical faults. The grammatical flaws and misused terminology made it difficult for others to follow her train of thought. She insists that her mother has a strong command of the English language, which is not clear in the account. Tan has concentrated on the reality of all existence, with a particular emphasis on broken grammar as it relates to her family. Her motherโ€™s daily chat with her stockbroker, relatives all gave the impression that her mother was illiterate. Tan claims that her mother understood English better than what the readerโ€™s minds conjured up.

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The โ€œMother Tongueโ€ reflects on how many people are mistaken and believe that English is a measure of intelligence; focusing on Tanโ€™s claim, she openly allows the reader to judge her motherโ€™s lack of high education. A Chinese woman who struggles to understand parts one and two of the English language. Tansโ€™ motives were very different from what she wanted us to believe, as her mother was not ignorant in Amyโ€™s opinion. Her motherโ€™s limitations were nowhere to be found, as her interactions with the stockbroker were immaculate.

Amy Tanโ€™s Mother Tongue: An Extensive Synopsis

The essay is mostly on the writerโ€™s own reflection and assessment of how โ€œdamaged Englishโ€ compares to Criterion English. Furthermore, it related to her belief that language not only โ€œaccreditsโ€ persons to participate as members of a specified community, but it is also an essential key in allowing individuals to establish and describe the dimensions of their identity. Despite the fact that she is a lover of words and an intellectual lover of language, she had never recognised this concept until she realised she had never ever shown up substantial and rhetorical in front of her mother.

She became consciously aware of the โ€œkindโ€ of language she used on a daily and affectionate basis when she remembered that her spouse did not have the slightest reaction when she stated a grammatically incorrect phrase. Thinking about it, she realised it was because they had been cohabiting for over twenty years and had been using the โ€œwrongโ€ form of English regularly. In addition, she felt the presence of a distinct form of language, the language of attachment, familial English.

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Tan also blamed her motherโ€™s limited English for her own limited possibilities in life. She believed that was the cause of her poor performance in Spoken ability as well as her poor performance in accomplishment tests. She agreed that the ever-changing nature of language compounded the dilemma, as she is unable to grasp the reason as well as the โ€œscienceโ€ behind an English inquiry owing to a limited vision impacted by her motherโ€™s โ€œbusted English.โ€ This had a significant impact not just on Tan, but also on others who grew up in a Broken-English speaking community, as she attempted to explain why there are more Asian-Americans in physical science classes than in literary and social science.

In 1985, she began writing fiction in her remarkable English. However, she changed her mind and decided to write a book about moms in the language she grew up with, her broken native language, in which she captured the language she and her mother used to speak with each other, the English language that is a verbatim translation from Chinese, the significance and also the colour of her mommyโ€™s internal language. She guarded those points, points that will never be duplicated by a language exam. Regardless of what her detractors say about her work, Tan is relieved to know that she has won the hearts of the viewers she had targeted, as her mother has given her the verdict, โ€œSo simple to read.โ€

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