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I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language -- the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all -- all the Englishes I grew up with.
Tan wrote ‘Mother Tongue’ in 1990, a year after her novel The Joy Luck Club was a runaway success. In the essay, Tan discusses her relationship with language, and how her mother’s influence has shaped her use of English, as well as her attitude to it.
But to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of obser-vation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world. Lately I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my ...
While Tan cannot “begin to understand” the media her mother engages with, her spoken English is “perfectly clear” to Tan and profoundly influences Tan’s life. Tan’s presentation of her mother emphasizes the complexity of her experience and the external—societal—influence on her identity.
A concise biography of Amy Tan plus historical and literary context for Mother Tongue. Mother Tongue: Plot Summary. A quick-reference summary: Mother Tongue on a single page. Mother Tongue: Detailed Summary & Analysis. In-depth summary and analysis of every of Mother Tongue. Visual theme-tracking, too. Mother Tongue: Themes.
“Mother Tongue” is an autobiographical essay in which Amy Tan identifies the varied nature of language in her everyday life. As a result of her mother ’s presence at a talk for her book, The Joy Luck Club, Tan becomes acutely aware of the many different “ Englishes ” she speaks.
Sep 24, 2018 · This piece in particular, published in 1990, explores Tan’s complicated relationship with language, raised by a Chinese immigrant mother whose English is markedly non-compliant with Standard American English, an idealized form of English imposed by dominant institutions.
Mother Tongue . by Amy Tan … I have been thinking about all this lately, about my mother's English, about achievement tests. Because lately I've been asked, as a writer, why there are not more Asian Americans represented in American literature. Why are there few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many
“What an enchanting and illuminating book! How lucky for us that Amy Tan has turned her genius, her deep empathy and insight, her keen eye for what is telling, to birds. Every page of these chronicles radiates warm curiosity, wonder, and delight.” —Jennifer Ackerman, The Genius of Birds
“Mother Tongue” explores Amy Tan’s relationship with the English language, her mother, and writing. This nonfiction narrative essay was originally given as a talk during the 1989 State of the Language Symposium; it was later published by The Threepenny Review in 1990.
