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Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

Chinese American writer Amy Tan, whose mom moved from her homeland China to America to make a better life for her daughter, struggles with her mom being unable to speak fluent English in public. It is embarrassing and frustrating to Amy, yet she feels that her mom’s limited English is normal, vivid and full of life at home. It is evident when Amy writes, “I have plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and in restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her,” in the “Mother Tongue” article. The “Mother Tongue” article was written after her mom passed away in 1999. Fortunately, her mom had the opportunity to read Amy’s 1st published book, The Joy Luck Club which was written in 1989. The primary purpose of Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is to orient the readers about the author’s differentiation of Standard English and broken English. Another purpose is the fact that she spent much of her time in America but was born in China. This factor enabled her to have the blend of both societies, which was also evident in her writing. Amy’s style, diction and tone in the “Mother Tongue” article is a combination of many depending on the reader. Her writing style is conversational. She uses a conversational style by giving her point-of-view with a casual tone and her use of contractions. For example, when she said that her mom told her to tell the stockbroker, “Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.” Her use of informality and casual tone indicates her use of entertainment style almost as if she is comedian at one point.

Like when she said, “And sure enough, that following week, there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English.” An argumentative writing style especially when others did not understand, guess or assume her mother’s requests often resulting in a rational argument at some point. “Mother Tongue” is not formal though and some may argue with that argumentative style. Her word choice was simple, humorous, nostalgic yet serious and objective at some point. A closer look at the Amy’s claim that helped the reader learn more about “Mother Tongue” can only come by either reading earlier written articles by Amy like, “The Annual Academic Journal”, published by Association of Study of Language, published from 1995 – 2005. This was the foundation for her book, “The Joy Luck Club”. Watching/ researching the movie (made in 1993 with the same title) and author on the internet. Researching Amy Tan and finding out more about her would probably help the reader look closer at this author. By having a better understanding of the writer’s life, lifestyle, education and home training the reader would have a clearer understanding and point-of-view of what the writer is trying to convey. A closer look at the structure of ”Mother Tongue” will help the reader to learn more about the article through effective communication. Besides, the purpose of effective communication is to capture the reader’s attention and get your point across clearly. Amy ultimately communicates in this writing and helps the reader understand her purpose for this article when she says, “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believe that her English reflected the quality

of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect.” In order to answer whether Amy’s writing was effective in achieving her purpose, let us breakdown the purpose of effective communication: The purpose of written communication is to capture the reader’s attention and get your point across clearly. Ultimately, when the writer communicates in writing, it helps the reader understand the perspective on the topic. There are certain qualities all effective written communication shares, adding the five C’s (connection, clarity, cause, conciseness, and correctness) to the writing quality is more powerful. Amy captivated the reader’s attention after paragraph one of “Mother Tongue”. The connection and clarity that she brought to this article was clearly fascinating. The reader can connect with her cause and conciseness because of the ease of the reading, connection of words, clarity in dialogue and no one could question her correctness because she lived that life and no one else.

References: Copyright of Read is the property of Weekly Reader Corporation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. The Opposite of Fate, by Amy Tan. Copyright 2003 by Amy Tan. Used by permission....