Rhetorical Reading Response to Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue"

Amy Tan, the author of “Mother Tongue” (1990), is a narrative essay that goes on to explains her love of language, and explain her cultural difference in speaking English. Amy explains one difference by explaining her personal experiences from her youth. Her purpose is to show the different ways of speaking English in order to communicate to certain people or groups. Her intended audience is immigrants and people from different backgrounds that speak different languages.

In relation to immigration and the use of English, I empathize greatly due to my personal background. When Tan discussed the issue of language barriers creating a sense of “brokenness” within the English language, I felt that it seemed discriminative in regards to how those who do not speak the same English as Americans are perceived as well as treated. As I read the story, I felt I could relate Tan’s feelings and observations to that of my own when witnessing the discrimination of my family members as they spoke to native English speakers. I understood when she explained that saying someone’s “language” or “speech” is broken implies that it needs to be fixed. Everyone speaks differently in regards to style and dialect, and I, as an American who uses English differently than perhaps my mother or grandmother, feels that placing that box on others who had to learn to use language in a different way is unfair.

Due to her constant immersion in the English language, Tan reveals that the “power of language” itself can “evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” (135), therefore suggesting that the true value of the use of English comes through the connections it creates as individuals. Tan also touches base on immigrants and how their use of the English language is considered “broken” and therefore holds “limiting” qualities in regards to conversations with others. To say that one’s language is “damaged” and in need of fixing is placing an immigrant’s use of the English language in a negative light, providing insight on how those who are natives speakers to the English language perceive language, whether  it be a tool to broaden horizons or an aspect of communication.

Precis by Pernida Freeman
Response and Analysis by Jensine Maxis