Mother Tongue Amy Tan: Mother

Mother Tongue

AMY TAN: MOTHER TONGUE

Amy Tan is one of most imminent Asian-American writers of contemporary times. With a Chinese descent and a mother whose English skills could best be described as 'limited', Tan found herself at a significant disadvantage in school. She was always directed away from English and pushed into more mechanical subjects like mathematics and science. Tan excelled in these subjects primarily because of the fact that her home English was significantly different from what was taught in school and that affected her command over the language. But Tan wanted to be a writer and her rebellious nature finally took her to her destination where she found herself discovering the power of language and power of various Englishes that she had grown up with. These are some of the facts about Amy Tan that you learn from her highly acclaimed essay, 'Mother Tongue'.

In Mother tongue, Tan reflects on the linguistic tensions that plagued her childhood and adolescence and made her believe that her parents' broken English was having a negative impact on her performance in school. "I think my mother's English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person's developing language skills are more influenced by peers. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, I.Q. tests, and the SAT." Tan's command of the language in school could be described as fairly good since she always received respectable grades in the subject but her scores were always overshadowed by her brilliant performance in mathematics and science. Her teachers felt she was more suited for a profession that involved use of mathematics and was even told by her boss once that writing was her worst skill and she should instead concentrate on accounting.

Her difficulties with English made her intensely aware of the different versions of the language she had seen, spoken and found acceptable. The Englishes she refers to in the essay are different variations of English that Tan was exposed to as a child and adolescent. While at school, she was taught standardized English, at work and with college audience, she used similar idiomatic English, the versions she used with her mother and husband were more intimate and personal to her. This personal version she describes as simple English because it lacked vast standard vocabulary but to Tan herself, this variation was anything but fragmented. "...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."

This is exactly what drove Tan to understand the significance of various dialects of English and its different forms that she had been exposed too. This exposure provided her with better understanding of the usage and power of English language. She realized that linguistic conflict that she experienced during her early years was closely connected with shaping of her identity and it was only when she rebelliously decided to break away from all stereotypical images and expectations of her that she finally became more acceptable of different variations of the same language and learned to effectively employ them too. Tan realized that while achievement tests may be accurate in their assessment of someone's command over standardized English language, they fail to understand the passion and richness contained in different variations of it. When she began writing, she chose to envision her mother as the reader because that was how she could capture the real beauty of language in its various forms: "I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts."

Amy Tan's essay is definitely an effective and powerful statement not only on variations of English and her exposure to the same but also on class and cultural discrimination that people encounter because of their inability to use proper standardized English. While the author has refused to focus on discrimination aspect in detail, she has effectively drawn our attention to this side of the issue. There is some underlying tension that one feels when reading the essay that directs our attention to the discriminatory attitude of people towards immigrants on account of their limited English. The essay also reveals the truth about cultural identity that immigrants have been forced to develop and adhere to because of stereotypical expectations and images harbored by Americans. The immigrant community has often suffered from stereotyping and has been forced to take up certain careers since that's what people expect them to do. However the essay clearly shows that immigrant community is no longer willing from suffer from such restricted expectations of them. They want to explore career choices like any other person would want to. The essay also effectively points out the biased attitude of people in the workplace while it subtly but purposefully attacks achievement tests.

While I certainly agree with her on other issues, I don't think achievement tests' example was really relevant. This is because achievement tests are meant to assess your understanding on English language and its complex structure, so I don't feel they are biased or they try to undermine the significance of variations of Englishes. They are definitely incapable of capturing the richness of different forms of English but they are meant to assess one's skills of standardized English and thus I found the example slightly irrelevant.