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  • Essay / Role of Language in “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

    As Amy Tan's experiences show, language plays a huge role in everyday life. It can influence and provide insight into another culture different from our own. In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan discusses the many ways in which the language she was taught and comes from has been important and powerful throughout her life. She uses moments from her childhood to develop a scenario of her academic and personal struggle as a bilingual child. While displaying her inhibitions, Amy Tan manages to correlate her traumatic past memories with the theme: finding a voice between the barrier of two worlds. Tan is stuck between two worlds. When she is with her mother, she speaks in simple English, but when she is out in the world, she adopts a more formal and acceptable English. She tells us the story using her mother's language so we can see how expressive her mother's broken English is. Even though the language is not what we are used to, its history is something we can follow. It's rich in detail and imagery, but Tan also tells us that many of his friends have trouble understanding what his mother is saying. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Amy Tan writes her article in an extremely casual and episodic tone. She uses the first person throughout the document and she adds numerous individual childhood memories to reinforce the legitimacy of her claim and demonstrate that the subject occupies a vital place in her life. The precedents she uses also make her tone intelligent. For example, when recounting how her mother had difficulty speaking to her stockbroker, in light of her English, Tan quotes her mother's words: "Why didn't he send me a check, already two weeks late. So crazy that he lies, causing me to lose money” (Tan 1). She does this to reflect on how the experience unfolded and to demonstrate how her mother's English influenced the situation. Tan is also enthusiastic and to some extent furious about the specific aims of her article, which makes the journal accessible and demonstrates her enthusiasm for the topic. This is reflected in the story of her mother's problems with doctors, but also when she talks about her teachers. “to move him away from writing and towards mathematics and science” (Tan 3). The intelligent, passionate and casual tones used by Tan suggest that she is writing the document for herself, to reflect a path similar to that of writing in a diary, just as for the informed people she strives to persuade. Through the effective use of rhetorical devices and careful organization of this essay, Amy Tan persuades the audience to keep an open mind on the subject. The audience that Amy Tan strives to reach with her message in the newspaper includes many types of individuals. One of the groups this exhibition is aimed at is those who speak “broken” English like their mothers. This is the general population that is mentally looked down upon in the network. Another gathering of individuals that tends to be made up of individuals who don't feel for or have a misconception about non-local English speakers. Likewise, those like Amy Tan, who help “broken” English speakers with any communication problem, understand the various varieties of the English language. For example, the way individuals communicate with others at work, school, and in daily exercises varies from one formal manner to another. for occasional use.