mother tongue amy tan quizlet
He come to my wedding. You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. -talking to her mom "My mother was in the room", Tan quotes a "terrible line" she once wrote "That was my mental quandary in its nascent state." Illustrate your observations with examples from Tan's essay, your own experience, or others you know. Math is precise; there is only one correct answer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. How could I go about writing four pages about the essay "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan, citing two or more different authors to support my claims? She recounts a time when the doctors at the hospital were unsympathetic towards her mother when they lost the results of the CAT scan they had undertaken on her brain, but as soon as the hospital at her mothers insistence called her daughter, they issued a grovelling apology. In directly quoting her mother, Tan is able to demonstrate her mother's speech patterns in text form. Discuss how and why parents identities and personalities are often a source of embarrassment or tension when people are young. She adores her as any other child would adore their own mom. That man want to ask Du Zong father take him in like become own family. Her mother gave her praise that meant a great deal to Tan: I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: 'So easy to read.'. Get started for free! But where Tan really gets to something deep, is this idea how we acquire language. What is the author's purpose, style, and tone in the story? The story helps the reader understand Tan's later comments about what to call her mother's English-words like limited or broken affect people's perceptions of her mother and her mother's abilities. In grade school I did moderately well, getting perhaps B's, sometimes B-pluses, in English and scoring perhaps in the sixtieth or seventieth percentile onachievement tests. In dividing the essay into sections, she is able to flow through to her points clearly and subtly. Give at least three details from the essay to support your opinion. The local people call putong, the river east side, he belong to that side local people. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. -influenced Amy's writing (four Englishes) Take Tan's mother's experience with the doctors as an example. d. infraction, Identify the following term or individuals and explain their significance. At the CAT scan, Tan's mother wasn't taken seriously due to her not being able to speak fluently. So mad he lie to me, losing me money. mother tongue amy tan chinese american writer amy tan, whose mom moved from her homeland china to america to make better life for her daughter, struggles with 3-2 Writing Plan 5-3 Feedback and It was most gratifying to Amy Tan when her mother read The Joy Luck Club, Amy's first book. What are some good things Andrew Carnegie did? -breaking the paragraphs (spaces) Tan talks about a few different types of English and in what situations she uses them, but each English form symbolizes something different to her. Every piece of literature, whether its an epic novel or a haiku, has some sort of structurewhich is simply the organization of the material. -she uses four types of English (the English she grew up with) I hesitate to use the word plot in the case of Mother Tongue because it doesnt seem to have much of one, at least not in the traditional sense that most fiction stories do. In a country where English is the dominant language, all of the school lessons are taught in it. It's my mother tongue. The phrase "mother tongue" refers to the language people learn to speak first. Find examples of peopleincluding Tan herselftreating her mother. How is Amy Tan's use of the phrase "mother tongue" ambiguous? Chinese social life that way. Tans autobiographical revelations in Mother Tongue show us that her own mother struggled to be taken seriously among Americans, and Tan diagnoses this struggle as a result of her mothers different way of speaking. -allows Amy to go in to saying how she was effected by her mother's tongue. Amy Tan also believes her mothers English affected her daughters school results. Her mother's language is colorful, powerful, and direct. three subjects Why? 5. Cite the text as needed to clarify and support your response. What organizational pattern does Tan use in "Mother Tongue," and how does she control her tone? Include in your discussion examples and observations from your own experience or Amy Tans Mother Tongue.. ". How did Tans teachers identify her when she was in high school? Latest answer posted March 28, 2020 at 9:26:15 PM. Flashcards. Discuss the way stereotypes or bias affect how we see ourselves and others. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. -uses quotes to give an example of her mother's English C q" She talks about the challenges her mother faced with her limited English. I came up with the idea that the author's claim is that one's use of language does not indicate their amount of knowledge or worth, but I am not sure if I am thinking of the right answer. An overarching theme of Tans novel is mothers emigrating to America in the hope that their daughters will have better lives than they did. This point leads on to Tan's presentation of the virtues of her mother's way of speaking. How did railroads help boost industrialization? The class tests at school which reduced English proficiency to an ability to recognise a correct answer are thus contrasted with Tans resounding final words of Mother Tongue, which see her seeking to capture the passion of her mother, the nature of her thoughts, and the imagery she uses: all things which her daughter has clearly inherited a respect for, and which school tests fail to capture or observe. Do you feel that people's abilities can be judged fairly by these kinds of tests? Use Tan's ideas about different kinds of English from "Mother Tongue" as a basis to consider the kinds of English you encounter every day. 16, Tan)". Fortunately, there are several different literary devices you can concentrate on for your literary analysis. -the piece is about how Amy's mom speaks (original language); Amy's mother had a different language then her own. /SA true eNotes Editorial, 10 Nov. 2019, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/in-amy-tan-s-short-story-mother-tongue-explain-258339. How would you describe Tan's attitude toward her mother? 2. Tan calls this clipped informal language her mother tongue, because it was the first language she learned and it helped to shape the way she saw the world and made sense of it. Tan grew up in Northern California, but when her father and older brother both died from brain tumors in 1966, she moved with her. Students' essays will probably address slang and jargon that they use, standard English that they use for most of their school experiences, and possibly formal English that they may use with relatives or in work situations. /Creator ( w k h t m l t o p d f 0 . However, Tans mothers English also symbolizes the limitations of immigrants in America and the challenges they have to face to be accepted. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. w !1AQaq"2B #3Rbr Amy Tan begins her essay by offering her personal opinions on the English language. Does the story feel complete as is? She says this because it could have impacted her in developing the English skills that were expected in school. 1 2 . After youve written your literary analysis, and you dont feel very confident in it, pass it along to one of the Kibin editors. 1. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of languagethe way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.. a. fragment Explain the meaning of Tans title and how it relates to her own identity as both a Chinese American, a daughter, and a writer. Along with her BS in marketing from Florida State University and MA in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University, she has spent the past 7 years learning how best to reach and teach people using the power of words. This establishes ethos as she admits that her specialty is in being a writer. Tan mentions several different emotions when talking about her mothers English. %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz 3. With the stockbroker, Tan was the one who would step in for her mother over the phone in order to express her mother's thoughts for her. She alludes to several instances where people, even a doctor, would not take her mother seriously because of the way she spoke. Tan is very attached to her mothers English to the point that she doesnt want to refer to it as broken. To her it symbolizes home because its the English she grew up with. Much of Tans 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club is about daughters and their relationships with their mothers. a) her mother was speaking that way on purpose just to embarrass Tan b) Her mother had an undiagnosed mental illness c) her mother's spoken language was imperfect, so her ideas must be imperfect d) her mother wasn't intelligent Consider the story "Mother Tongue." She had cashed out her small portfolio and it just so happened we were going to go to New York the next week, our very first trip outside California. Theyll help you make Amy Tan proud by assisting with proper language and other editing. -understand how her mom talked and how it was hard for others to understand her d. Her mother is the audience (reader) for The Joy Luck Club, a book about mother-and-daughter relationships. How did Tans teachers identify her when she was in high school? Why? Mother tongue commonly means the language first learned by a person, but for the author, Amy Tan, it has a special meaning. Mother tongue is usually referred to the first language a person is taught, however I think Tans use of the word mother tongue is much more intimate in a sense that she feels that ere English or her mother tongue is unique to her, and that the variation of English she speaks to her mother is her mother tongue. Eliasib. When writing about becoming an English major in college, Tan said that she had always been rebellious. My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment, to find out about a benign brain tumor a CAT scan had revealed a month ago. In the essay, Tan discusses her relationship with language, and how her mothers influence has shaped her use of English, as well as her attitude to it. Tan does a great job incorporating several different tones into such a short piece. Who is the intended audience for "Mother Tongue"? She began writing fiction in 1985, and after several false starts trying to find her own style and idiom, she began to write with her mother in mind as the ideal reader for her stories. What strategies does she use to make this argument? What is Amy Tans primary identity according to what she says in paragraphs 1-3 of "Mother Tongue"? /Length 7 0 R This English is expressive, grammatically distant from proper forms, hard to understand for some native English speakers, and perfectly comfortable to Amy. Tan is making the argument in "Mother Tongue" that she became a better writer when she began to use both the types of English she spoke to write books her mother could understand. What is Amy Tans primary identity according to what she says in paragraphs 1-3 of "Mother Tongue"? This text is a great starting point for discussions on culture, language and more. "How Poetry Comes to Me" TPCASTT // Gary Snyd, "Common Ground" TPCASTT // Judith Ortiz Cofer, SpringBoard English Language Arts: Grade 10, myPerspectives: English Language Arts, California (Grade 9, Volume 1), Glencoe Literature Course 4: The Readers Choice. What would be the impact of omitting one of them? In one or two paragraphs, describe the personal experience that the writer had in "Mother Tongue", and the understanding she gained through her reflection about the experience. Mother Tongue is an essay by Amy Tan, an American author who was born to Chinese immigrants in 1952. ACCTG 205: CH 1 Vocabulary. 5. /Width 625 Log in here. Accessed 2 May 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. So I never did well on tests like that. Accept any answers that address the concern of the question and are elaborated by examples or details from the literature or from life. Because there are quite a few different tones in this short story, they transition from one to the other. M.A. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person's developing language skills are more influenced by peers. What is Tan's strategy behind including a lengthy, direct quotation from her mother (para. She is motivated to make this argument to explain her method as a writer and her intellectual, literary, linguistic, and personal progress in uniting her two identities and to show that these identities need not be separated. What is so terrible about that line, -she wrote sentences that she thought to be wittily crafted sentences, sentences that would finally prove that she had mastery over the English language Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. Mean gives lots of respect. She says it provides imagery and emotions that standard, grammatically-correct English cannot. This was understandable. If raised in Italy, it is Italian; in France, it is French. How is Amy Tan's use of the phrase "mother tongue" ambiguous? And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, "Why he don't send me check, already two weeks late. Here, Tan alludes to the concept of the "mother tongue": a child's earliest language, often used with a primary caregiver, who in many instances is the mother. I am not a scholar of English or literature. Chinese age I was nineteen. Tan believed that her mother's English reflected the quality of what she had to say-that the imperfections in her speech meant that her ideas were just as imperfect. Stephen Crane Amy Thompson Amy Tan Anne Tan 2. And how they tend to excel in mathematics and science due to language barriers. << That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world. ______ to influence. But Tans language, or tongue, has been shaped by her actual mother, whose first language (or mother tongue) was not English, but Chinese. What is the context of Mother Tongue? Award-winning novelist, short story writer, and essayist. 8. The argument Tan makes is that she has become a better writer by fusing these types of language than she was when she used the acrolect alone. She used all of the "Englishes" she grew up with, giving her more connection to her work, and with the audience as well. Eden Meirow is a full-time copywriter and part-time freelance writer. Tan talks about growing up with different forms of English and how that affected both her childhood and adult life. Tan explains, "This was understandable. Jing-mei's mother quizzes her on various topicsincluding state and national capitals, complicated mathematics, and weather predictionin hopes that she might possess a talent like the children. However, in Amy Tan's story, I believe she is making a statement about her mother's form of English: her mother's tongue. Tan elaborates this idea by scrutinizing her mother's language, her own use of English and society's response to different people's English usage. The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. Print. What is similar between Tan's more contemporary version of the American Dream and the novel Of Mice and Men? 2)? This progression is typical of many stories, both long and short, but in this case you can apply it to tone as well. Tan, Amy. Tan is making the argument in "Mother Tongue" that she became a better writer when she began to use both the types of English she spoke to write books her mother could understand. "Mother tongue," as it is used in the title of this piece, is a pun on the traditional idea. Where "mother tongue" usually refers euphemistically to someone's first language, here it refers to Amy's mother's second language: the English that Amy is familiar with her using, literally her mother's tongue. I am doing an assignment about the essay "Mother Tongue," but I am having a hard time understanding the claim of the author and the target audience. If too important won't have to stay too long. In the following sentence, underline each misspelled or misused word and write the correct spelling or word above the incorrect word. << Find examples of peopleincluding Tan herselftreating her mother disrespectfully. 8 . If all the words in a numbered word group are correct, write C above it. It literally means one's first language. This is a key part of Feathers from a Thousand Li Away, and it helps us to understand Tans conflicted attitude towards her mothers use of language as explored in Mother Tongue. /Height 155 4. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. . 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3 0 obj How do each of these shifts in tone help move the reader along in the story? Discuss how Tan broadens the essay's relevance by going beyond just her personal experience and raising issues that would be germane to her audience. Tan says that her identity as a writer was originally separate from her identity as her mother's daughter. Chinese way, came only to show respect, don't stay for dinner. What we would call proper English symbolizes both Tans acceptance into American society and a separation from her mother. Du Zong father wasn't look down on him, but didn't take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. Students' writing should address the specific experiences and messages of the essays that they choose. /BitsPerComponent 8 Cell Bio Exam 1. This shows how the way English is spoken affects how one is treated. Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. Do you think her idea is valid? Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But many people who hear her mother speak can only partially understand what she is saying, and some even say they can understand nothing of what she says, as if she were speaking pure Chinese to them. Answers will vary but should include points similar to the following: a. Tan includes the story to give readers an example of just how her mother's English sounds and how expressive it is. The story helps readers understand one of Tan's points: her mother's English does have intent, passion, imagery, and rhythm, and it shows the complexity of her thoughts. Students in agreement might cite Tan's interpretation of analogy questions and Cisneros's poor school performance but obvious intellect that was nurtured by her family. She recognizes that her mom is in fact able to comprehend complex sentences in English, but just struggles to express herself clearly in the language. But once Tan had arrived and upon hearing her perfect English, the staff had taken the case up with more urgency. Psst 98% of Kibin users report better grades! Here is the text: http://www.umsl.edu/~alexanderjm/Mother%20Tongue%20by%20. c. rout But I wince when I say that. Accessed 2 May 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. Her mother attends a lecture that Tan is delivering, and Tan realizes that her mother is hearing Tan speak a kind of English that she does not use at home. possibilities" for people in the United States today? In this connection, it is noteworthy that Tan chooses to focus on the school tests she undertook before concluding that her mothers broken style of English has been misunderstood not just literally (by some people whove known her), but in terms of the misleading perceptions of her it has led others to formulate. Students in disagreement might point to Dove's consuming interest in reading, which seems largely uninfluenced by her family, and Cisneros's belief that her desire to write came from a "hunger" she felt, even with her family. Finally, she wraps it up nicely with a note about how she now uses those various forms of English in her career. Sample answer: Communication is more about intent than specific words and word usage. She said she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Then write an essay in which you explain the use of English in your life and communications. Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan Comprehension 1. "Mother tongue," as it is used in the title of this piece, is a pun on the traditional idea. And Tan drew on all the Englishes, plural, that she knew: the broken English her mother used, the simple English Tan used when talking to her mother, the watered-down Chinese her mother used, and her mothers internal language which conveyed her passion, intent, imagery, and the nature of her thoughts. defining her mother's tongue and other's interpretations of it (their reactions), -how other's react to her mother's tongue - pretended not to understand her or hear her, did not take her seriously, and did not give her good service. Now important person, very hard to inviting him.