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Role of Language in 'Mother Tongue' by Amy Tan

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Words: 1226 |

Pages: 3|

7 min read

Published: Feb 9, 2022

Words: 1226|Pages: 3|7 min read

Published: Feb 9, 2022

 As shown through the experiences of Amy Tan, language plays an enormous role in Day to Day lives. It can influence and give 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 native to was important and powerful throughout her life. She implements moments of her childhood to develop a storyline 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: to find a voice between a barrier of two worlds.Tan is stuck between two worlds. When she is with her mother, she speaks in simple English, but out in the world, she shifts to an English that is more formal and acceptable. 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 may be used to, her story is something we can follow. It is vivid with detail and images, but Tan also tells us that many of her friends have a difficult time understanding what her mother is saying.

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Amy Tan writes her paper in an extremely casual and episodic tone. She utilizes first person all throughout the paper and she adds numerous individual past childhood memories to build the legitimacy of her claim to demonstrate that the subject has a vital spot in her life. The precedents she utilizes additionally makes her tone intelligent. For instance, when she recounts to an experience of her mom experiencing difficulty speaking to her stock broker, in light of her English, Tan quotes her mom's words “Why he not send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie tone, losing me money” (Tan 1). She does this to consider how the experience played out and to demonstrate how her mom's English influenced the circumstance. Tan is likewise enthusiastic and to some degree furious at specific purposes of her article and that makes the paper relatable and demonstrates her enthusiasm for the subject.This is displayed in the story of her mother’s trouble with the doctors but also when she shares about her teachers “steering [her] away from writing and into math and science” (Tan 3). The intelligent, passionate, and casual tones Tan uses propose that she is composing the paper for herself, to mirror a similar path as writing in a diary, just as to the informed individuals she is endeavoring to persuade.

Through the effective use of rhetorical devices and the mindful organization of this essay, Amy Tan persuades the audience to keep an open mind about the topic. The audience Amy Tan is endeavoring to reach with her message in the paper incorporates numerous sorts of individuals. One gathering that this exposition addresses is those that talk 'broken' English like her mom. They are the general population that are looked down upon on mentally in the network. Another gathering of individuals that is being tended to comprises of individuals that don't feel for or have misconception of non-local English speakers. Likewise, those that resemble Amy Tan, who help the 'broken' English speakers settle any miscommunication understand the diverse varieties of the English language.

For instance, the manner in which individuals communicate with others at work, school and everyday exercises all varies from formal to casual utilization of english. An incredible case of a situation needing formal english would be the working environment.The type of language used in the workplace is becoming a major concern for employees given the increase diversity of many nationalities and ethnicities working together. The scope of various accents somewhat develops each time another person is procured making a startling air for the individuals who have english as a second language. Being bilingual can be both, leverage and drawback in a business situation. The world she lives in develops the probability of her natural personality.

In the text, Tan uses an assortment of rhetorical devices to communicate her use of ironic, parallel structures often displayed all through the piece, for instance she begins the principal section with the expression 'I am not a researcher of english' (Tan 1). This expression infers that in spite of the fact that Tan’s mom’s English may be 'constrained', yet as she would like to think it doesn't strike her as being off-base as such a large number of would think; she obviously expresses this when she says 'Some state they see none of it, as though she were talking unadulterated Chinese. Be that as it may, to me, my mom's English is superbly clear, impeccably characteristic'. Also, she utilizes exemplification again to stress the variety of English she talks when she says 'the crossing point of memory upon creative energy'. Towards the fifth section Amy utilizes numerous stories or individual encounters to give the audience more of an understanding with the inconveniences she was confronted with when she was more youthful with her mom and the embarrassment she confronted. Moreover, Amy's utilization of exchange all through the content gives the reader a chance to encounter her first language.

Her exposition begins off, Tan uses disclaimers, for example, ' I am not a researcher of English or literature...I am a writer.' (Tan 1) By doing this, Tan plans perusers for an increasingly close to home article and offers her capabilities for expounding on language. She proceeds with the paper with numerous anecdotes about how her utilization of English went to her conscience.She utilizes these accounts to approve her cases about how communicated in English fluctuates and to clarify what impacts those varieties had in her life. She employments of her mom's 'broken' English to accentuate the distinctions in language employments. Tan likewise gives instances of her utilization of 'impeccable' English in the tale about her mom and the specialists, and her address close to the start. This demonstrates despite the fact that she sees the estimation of her mom's English and even uses it at home, she felt the significance of having the capacity to utilize 'immaculate' English for her work as an author. All through her exposition, Tan will in general meander, addressing a wide range of examples where she reviews her utilization of the language influencing her life.. Tan closure of the short story by advising about returning to her underlying foundations and seeing the magnificence of her mom's English; toward the end she advises about attempting to catch that English in her composition and says, 'I realized I had succeeded where it tallied when my mom wrapped up my book and gave me her decision: 'so natural to read' (Tan 3).

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Amy Tan composed Mother Tongue to show and persuade perusers regarding the estimation of an individual's thoughts regardless of how 'impeccable' their English is. In spite of the fact that she doesn't unequivocally say it, Tan is likewise endeavoring to pass on the significance of remaining consistent with yourself and returning to your underlying foundations regardless of whether the world doesn't see things a similar way or even looks downward on it. Tan infers that it is directly for her mom's plans to be communicated in the manner she communicates in English since it is increasingly genuine, crude, and consistent with her and conveys a lot more significance than if she somehow happened to talk with 'impeccable' English. 

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Dr. Charlotte Jacobson

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Role of Language in ‘Mother Tongue’ by Amy Tan. (2022, February 10). GradesFixer. Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/role-of-language-in-mother-tongue-by-amy-tan/
“Role of Language in ‘Mother Tongue’ by Amy Tan.” GradesFixer, 10 Feb. 2022, gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/role-of-language-in-mother-tongue-by-amy-tan/
Role of Language in ‘Mother Tongue’ by Amy Tan. [online]. Available at: <https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/role-of-language-in-mother-tongue-by-amy-tan/> [Accessed 28 Mar. 2024].
Role of Language in ‘Mother Tongue’ by Amy Tan [Internet]. GradesFixer. 2022 Feb 10 [cited 2024 Mar 28]. Available from: https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/role-of-language-in-mother-tongue-by-amy-tan/
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