In her essay, Mother Tongue, Amy Tan starts by acknowledging her scholarly ignorance when it comes to English language and literature (Tan) . Her aim in having the article written is to present personal opinions concerning the English language and the variations that come with it in her country and elsewhere. The author is a writer and an individual who possesses a lot of love for the language. Amy Tan speaks about the love she has for language and spends a lot of time thinking about the kind of power that language has. This power, contained in the language, entails having emotions evoked, having an image in its visual sense, an idea which is complex or a truth which is presented in the simplest of formats (Tan) .
In the essay “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood ,” the author states that he began school in California and for the first time he was able to understand what the English language entails (Rodriguez, 1981) . He was able to have a complete grasp of the kind of words that the English language contains. Rodriguez writes about the unrevealing nature of the two siblings ahead of her. The two had not brought the revelation and the kinds of experiences they had witnessed in school. All they could speak, on the basis of habit, is Spanish. He speaks of himself as having landed in a school where all the classmates he had were white racially. In addition, some of the children had parents who were doctors and lawyers while others were children of business executives (Rodriguez, 1981) . Consequently, the children felt a sense of uneasiness when it came to going to school and finding no people from their families.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue , Amy can speak English to near fluency at home to her mother’s astonishment. She makes use of grammar that has been wrought with all the care needed. In using such heightened language, the author became aware of the kind of English that she applied. She described it as making use of different ‘Englishes.' The language that Amy used is one which she had never spoken in her mother’s presence. The moment she decided to use it makes it unfamiliar to her mother. Her husband happened to have been with her at one point without taking notice of the alternations that she made. Amy Tan and her husband had been used to the same kind of language daily. Amy refers to the fact that certain kind of English can be able to establish some intimacy between couples.
The case is different for the author of the essay Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood. In this case, the parents could not speak the English language in a proper and fluent manner. Richard Rodriguez has described the kind of English that they spoke as being ‘hesitant and full of accent with very many errors of grammar.’ He goes on to state that the parents would strain at the kind of body tense used when they were tasked with understanding what white individuals said because of the accent used. Rodriguez further states that the white people accent was much different from that of Hispanics which he was used to. It is worth noting that while growing up, he was used to being addressed in the Spanish language. Rodriguez’s opportunity to learn the English language came as a result of an opportunity that he encountered when he had to listen to an interaction between his mother and a stranger who wanted some of her cooking.
In the essay, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood , Rodriguez takes note of the kind of quietness that sinks in due to the continued learning of the English language. According to Rodriguez, the learning that took place for children in homes is the one responsible for the quietness that was taking place in those homes. The quietness came as a result of further exercises of learning through the English language. Rodriguez further states that learning English led to the sharing of fewer words between parents and their children. In addressing parents, the author notes the fact that sentencing needs to be done in a slower manner. Rodriguez takes note of the fact that knowing English was to blame for the lack of understanding on how to give parents proper response, particularly regarding the children. He further states that when one understands and applies the kind of language used at an earlier time, it reminds an individual of the process of the painful endeavors one had to undertake to be in the position of knowing English.
In the essay, Mother Tongue, Amy notes that English potentially affected the life’s possibilities. Development of language skills is a process that one’s peers influence the most. According to Amy, the Language that is spoken at a family level plays a role in shaping a child’s language. Amy also notes that language affects the kind of achievements made when it comes to tests on IQ and the SAT. In looking at the performance of Asian students, Amy states that they do better in programs which involve mathematics compared to those which involve the English language. The reason, according to Amy, is that Asian students are limited to the learning of English as a language.
The author of The Mother Tongue sees an opportunity in engineering for those who may not be able to grasp English adequately but are good in Mathematics and Science. For instance, she cites an example of the Chinese students who do significantly well in Mathematics and, therefore, pursue Engineering compared to those who are so good in literary subjects. Amy also indicates that many of the Asian-Americans students who speak the English language are deemed to be poor, and many times they speak broken English. She goes further to describe the kind of English that she spoke with her parents to be just ‘simple and broken.’ Amy goes on to state that conducting a language ability test cannot reveal an individual’s intention, passion, imagery, speech rhythms and the nature of thoughts that are inherent in a person.
In the essay, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood Rodriguez is not an advocate of the bilingual case. He says that assimilation into the public society makes a child lose his or her degree of individuality. Being bilingual has an advantage compared to the value one gets from being assimilated. Bi-linguists propose that each and every difference known concerning students should be made known in the mass of the society. The author goes ahead to suggest that separateness and individuality be equated. The author suggests that in any public setting, achievement of full individuality occurs paradoxically. This is so in the case of individuals who consider themselves as being members of the crowd.
References
Rodriguez, R. (1981). The American Scholar. Seattle, WA: The Phi-Beta Kappa Society.
Tan, A. (n.d.). Mother Tongue. Retrieved November 6, 2016, from UMSL: http://www.umsl.edu/~alexanderjm/Mother%20Tongue%20by%20Tan.pdf
