Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary

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Amy Tan Mother Tongue Summary

Amy Tan Mother Tongue: In the short story "Mother Tongue" by author Amy Tan, she speaks of her mother's English as "broken English" because her mother came from China and spoke as though she was unintelligent. Growing up Amy knew two languages. When she spoke to her mother she used elementary style words and spoke as though she did not know the language, while in front of fluent English speakers, she spoke eloquently with an impressive vocabulary. Amy becomes uncomfortable with the word broken English' throughout her life because the term implies that her mother's language is not "fixable" and reflects the quality of what she has to say. When in reality her mother's language is more vivid and imaginary than anyone else's. Throughout

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