Amy Tan: Mother Tongue
The literacy narrative, “Mother Tongue”, by Amy Tan, is about the different kinds of English’s which exist in Tan’s world and how she went against the grain to become a successful writer using the same kinds of English’s she once despised. Tan recounts how she coped with communicating in a simplistic manner of English with her not so fluent mother, then on the other hand, learning to develop and hone her English skills in school. As a teen, Tan, under the orders of her mother, pretended to be her own mother on the phone because few people were able to understand what little English her mother was able to speak. Her belief that growing up with the broken English her mother used was a detriment to achieving high test scores on her English exams. However, Tan challenged herself by forgoing the stereotypical route of science and math expected in Asians and became an English major. Working through several drafts of her first major project, Tan was able to construct her breakthrough novel The Joy Luck Club with the help of her mother and the different kinds of English’s she grew up with.
As a fellow Asian-American, Amy Tan’s narrative sparked a sense of understanding for what she went through because I experienced the same situations as she did. Tan admits that she “was ashamed of her [mother’s] English” because it was “limited” and “imperfect” (543). Growing up, my views of my parents’ linguistic skills was far from accepting. I winced each time I heard a mistake in grammar or pronunciation and associated the feeling with hearing the unbearable sound of wailing sirens. On the other hand, unlike Tan, who was forced to be a bridge of communication between her mother and the outside world, I took it upon myself to speak on the behalf of my parents. Whether it was making calls for doctor appointments, ordering food at restaurants, I felt obligated to stop my parents from causing confusion in communication. I saw this as my opportunity...