Amy Tan’s Mother tongue Rhetorical Analysis

         Little kids wouldn’t understand the struggles that their parents are going through especially if they are coming from another country to America. In Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue, the author expresses the different variations of English. A conversation with her mother may sound normal in her ears, while others describe it as “broken English.” In many cases, there are parents that only speak one language but can’t communicate in the one where everyone understands each other. Growing up, that was the situation for me. My mother doesn’t understand English and she does not speak it. From a young age, I was forced to learn Spanish in order to be able to communicate with my mother. This didn’t only help me with her, however, it prepared me for what was to come later down the road. In Amy Tan’s case, she communicates to her audience to portray that people like us aren’t alone. There is a vast community that understands the struggles we go through just to understand our loved ones and that she made it very clear. 

When Amy Tan’s mother is speaking English not a lot of people fully understand what she is trying to say, her diction and articulation aren’t that great, in her mind because this is all she knows Amy Tan’s mother thinks this is correct. According to Mother Tongue, “Respect for making big celebration, he shows up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social life that way. If too important won’t have to stay too long. He comes to my wedding. I didn’t see, I heard it. I gone to the boy’s side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen.” To Amy Tan this is perfect English while on the other hand, from her friends point of view they don’t fully understand what her mother is trying to say. From a personal standpoint, I understand what Tan is trying to express. Tan explicitly describes her mother’s English as perfect and ideal. In many cases, such as my father’s English, from the time he may stutter or communicate through incomplete sentences, I take the time to understand him. In the world, people tend to be ignorant and not take the time out to try and understand people who speak this type of English. They get frustrated and ignore what the person is trying to say. However it’s hard to come to a completely new country and learn a new language, and this is where the ignorance and misconception come from. It brings me happiness to know my father is trying his best to communicate with others around him who don’t know Spanish. 

Throughout Tan’s essay, she implicitly while also directly states her own opinions. “But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.” This part really expresses the amount of power language has on her life. The type of language that she was exposed to shapes how the author communicates/expresses herself. While reading this article I felt a deep connection between Amy Tan and her mother because I can strongly relate. In situations such as talking over the phone and speaking English for my dad, or when I have to accompany my mother to places where she needs help communicating with others in order to get what she needs. 

Amy Tan’s message was direct throughout her writing. She conveys how much she relates to the daughter of an immigrant mother. Tan attracts her audience by sharing her personal challenges allowing others to know they are not alone. In addition, to compare how much similarities there are even through different languages. At the end of the day no one speaks a language perfectly, however it is amazing that as broken as a language might sound for us we still find ways to communicate and express oneself despite the differences.