Amy Tan Mother Tongue Language Analysis

In the articles, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and “Rhythm of the Caribbean: Connecting Oral History and Literacy" by Glasceta Honeyghan, the authors discuss different types of language styles that they grew up with. The authors discuss their difficulties and what was enjoyable to them. The articles remind us that working hard on what you enjoy will be worth it one day. In the article, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, Tan describes what it was like growing up in an immigrant family in the United States. Tan speaks perfect English in front of non-Chinese people, but when she is around her family, she speaks Chinese English which is not the correct way to speak it. Tan speaks much better English than her mom does and therefore has to call and speak to people for her mom, because her mom can’t do it by herself. Tan has always been good at everything, but her lowest grade was in English. Tan always wondered why Asian Americans never took creative writing programs and ended up in engineering. Tan realized it was probably because the English language was limited or broken in their families as it was in her own. Tan ended up being a writer, because she loves the way words flow and rhyme and because she was a little rebellious and didn’t like teachers telling her she was a horrible writer. In the article, “Rhythm of the Caribbean: Connecting Oral
She also was not very good at English, but she wanted to prove people wrong that Asians could be writers so she kept working on it. Honeyghan had no choice, but to listen to poetry, music and stories, because she was poor and there were no TV’s or electronics. Both authors decided to go into writing for different reasons. Tan is proving a point and Honeyghan, because there was nothing else to