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Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis

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Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis
Limited English

In Amy Tans's short store "Mother Tongue", readers are introduced to Tan who is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant mother. While in school, Tan always excelled in mathematics and science, but felt she had a disadvantage with English and Literature. This disadvantage was caused because her limited English she had to use with her mother. As a young girl growing up
Tan was embarrassed because of her mothers poor English "I know this for a fact, because when
I was growing up, my mothers limited English limited my perception of her" (Tan, pg#70). As time went on Amy accepted her mothers "broken"English and grew to dislike the term "limited
English". Do people judge others based on their inability to speak …show more content…
Tan feels that one should not be judged because that person is not flaunt in English. Tan feels that the way one speaks does not perceive ones educational status or how smart that person is. Tans mother is able to read magazines such as Forbes, but she is still being perceived as someone with lesser value "My mother has long realized the limitation of her English as well...I was forced to ask for information or even complain and yell at people who had been rude to her." (Tan,pg#70) People should not be perceived as anything less due to the fact that their English is not as good as a person who speaks fluently in English. Tan also feels that her mother was never taken seriously due to her mothers "limited" English. Not even Tan's mothers doctor took her seriously. Tan's mother had a doctors appointment to get CAT scans back of her brain to see if there were any tumors. Unfortunately, the CAT scans were lost. Tans mother was left without any help. Tans mother demanded for the doctor to contact her daughter. Since Tan spoke in an English that was more understandable to the doctor the doctor then was willing to help "When the doctor
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