The Importance of Language - Using Amy Tan's Essay

The importance of language

Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” (385-391) makes us aware of our use of language in daily life. In her essay Amy Tan describes how all of the English’s that she grew up with, normal English and "mother tongue" English, has molded her first view of life. I strongly agree and can definitely relate to Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” (385-391) inferences to language, as I also have smart parent’s who are immigrants and am their main source of communication with people who don’t take them seriously. I believe the main idea of tan’s “ Mother Tongue” is to stress that just because someone cannot speak the English language to a perfection does not in any way make them lesser in intelligence than someone who is born in this country who speaks and understands English fully.

The first reason I can relate to Amy Tan’s “Mother tongue” is I am also not a natural born citizen of the USA. I, too have parents who have their own way of speaking and understanding the English language. They are both bright and intelligent individuals , although out of my 6 siblings only I can understand and help them to the full extent. I have been my parent’s translator for as long as I can remember. Amy Tan states “like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English. (Tan, 387) Having to constantly be present for an appointment with my parents always made me wonder how other people viewed my parents, did they think them inferior or not educated? I have to admit always having to be there was annoying if not embarrassing, but I felt it was my duty to help them out. I would put myself in their shoes and imagined the situation reversed, they would with no doubt in my mind, help me the same way I assist them.

The second reason is just how similar her personal inferences remind me of my very own memories with my parents. For example I remember having to speak with a customer service representative for my parents. It was about overages of fees on their bill. While I calmly explained to the representative that I “Mrs. Husejnovic” was not aware of any overages or new fees that were to be added and I requested a fair explanation. All the while my mother and father would be in the background speaking over me, in very loud voices, in half Albanian and half English. They were repeating themselves over and over not taking into thought, that the representative was hearing it all. Just as Amy Tan had stated when she said “I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, this is Mrs. Tan (Tan, 387)

Amy Tan has raised a good awareness in the ability to choose the right language usage for each situation. A great example of this awareness is when Tan shares her personal experience of getting cat scan results for her mother. Her mother alone could not get her own results or answer’s to their whereabouts’, as anxious as she was . She was told to make another appointment, Tan’s mothers English limited her in life. It is Tan herself that received the acknowledgement and respect over the phone due to the loss of her mother’s results, with “apologies for any suffering her mother had gone through”. (Tan, 286) In my own experience my mother has been going to the same kidney doctor for over five years, who time and time again advised her not to worry it just that she has kidney stones and nothing more. Late one night my mother got very ill that we had to call an ambulance to escort her to the nearest hospital, she had a seizure and would not come back to. After my mother was admitted my father was very stressed out because no one would explain to him why his wife was this ill. Once I arrived to the hospital, I demanded to speak with a patient relations manager, who then paged the doctor attending to run some test’s. Finally I was getting somewhere, turns out these past five years my poor mother had lupus a disease doctors know very little about. Her doctor had not listened to the way she was explaining her symptoms we know now as flare ups, that she could easily have prevented.

In conclusion, I confirm that my very own inferences on language are almost identical to Amy Tan’s “ Mother Tongue”. I enjoyed the similarities between our parents and their “very special” way of speaking , understanding , and expressing themselves. I am certainly sure that I am not the only person who can relate to this essay, after all we live in a wonderful country filled with many different cultures and languages. It is the awareness of language and how they really play of great importance in decisions they make as we all communicate with others. We can all look to gain from Amy Tan’s essay as have I. I alone thought the intimate language spoken in my home was my burden, I now feel I should embrace it.

Work Cited
Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue”
75 Readings: An anthology
Editor’s Buscemi & Smith
11th Edition: NY : McGraw-Hill
(385-391)

Cited: Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue” 75 Readings: An anthology Editor’s Buscemi & Smith 11th Edition: NY : McGraw-Hill (385-391)