Mother tongue by Tan is a book that explains how people use different languages in diverse ways depending on the context they are. Tan is specific about how people use the English language in different contexts. For instance she states that her speech in English is always different with diverse people and context. The author gives an example of how she uses the language in a dissimilar way with her mother and also husband as well as the audience she addresses. The book begins by Tan explaining how she uses different versions of English when addressing her audience. The author uses an example of the speech she gave when launching her book and the mistakes she made.
Tan explains that mid way her speech she realized the mistakes she was making by using words and sentences that were grammatically wrong. The author also claims that the kind of English she has been using with her family her mother and family is “broken”. She further explains that it is the kind of English that a native Chinese speaker would speak. The author argues that although her mother is a fluent English speaker some words are hard to be understood by her friends. Tan explains that when growing up she was embarrassed about how her mother always expressed herself in English. She explains about the respect and attention one earns when having fluent English without and accent just like the case of her mother who was diagnosed with brain tumor.
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One crucial thing is her thought on whether her family’s accent would have limited her opportunities in life. She also wonders whether the immigrant English is the reason why there are no more Asian- American writers. Another critical point she mentions is that in her early writing she used complex English full of vocabulary, but later realized that she needed to have the reader in mind and that good literature is what can be easily understood by the reader.
