summary

In the text Mother Land written by Amy Tan, she writes about the different languages one grows up with, and the hardships and obstacles people go through when only “limited” English is known. Tan is amazed by language and how language shapes how she works as a writes. Also how it shapes her every day life in how she uses her many “englishes”. These many “englishes” tan speaks about in her text refer to the realization of it when she was invited to a conference and how she changed the way she spoke to the crowd and the way she would speak with her mother or husband. Tan used the language she learned academically in books and school, not the language her mother sitting in the crowd taught her. She observes also how she would use a different dialect a more “intimate” ish English with her family members, different then the one she would use with other people. Tan talks about a story her mother told her once about a shanghai gangster, she recall that people didn’t really understand her mother because of the “broken “ English she was using, even though Tan’s friends could not understand her tan is able to understand her mother because to her , her mother is a smart women who has clear thoughts and who understand complex books, ideas and economics . The author rejects the fact that people label her mothers as speaking “broken” or “limited” English. People judged Tans mother because of the way she would convey what she had to say. Many would think she had nothing important to say because her message was not clearly stated. Her mother realizes that people do judge and label her as some one that does not speak clear or perfect English, her mother recognizes her limitations and uses Tan to translate to get her message heard and clearly stated. Tan also argues that not being taken seriously by people who do speak ”perfect” English can have some serious consequences. She recalls the time when her mother had to have a CAT scan done and how the doctor didn’t want to give it to her the results, because she would not be able to understand them. Not in till Tan called and complained to the doctor that his lack of telling her mother or her family the results could of but her others life in danger. After this confrontation with the doctor and the CAT scan, she realizes the limitations people brought upon her, because of judgments and assumptions. She question why Asian student are steered to subject like math and science being slowly pushed away from English departments. Being the rebel that Tan is she went against what her teacher and society tolled her what to do. She followed her own path and studied English. As a content writer she continues to write books with one type of audience in her mind, Tan uses the many “engishes” she grew up to let mold her books she has written today.

According to Tan speaking many englishes can have positive and negative consequences. For example in the text Tan remembers how she used to be her mothers translator. How she felt the need to play the role of her mother and express her feelings , of anger towards the stockbroker, who wouldn’t giver her mother her check. I would feel the same anger as Tan, when people uses to try to fool my mother or father by manipulating them for the lack of English. When I was younger I always use to translate for my mother, at times I will feel so frustrated with her, not being able to comprehend why she was not like everybody else. I felt frustrated, and degraded, feeling incompetent when I didn’t comprehend how to translate, switch codes between theses two different worlds. “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say”(pg36). Just like Tan I do believe that the many “Englishes” used growing up shapes one to the person they are today and just as it shaped Tan, it has shaped me when I think about my own experience I went through as a child and still at times as an adult. Tan further explains how English test were always a judgment call . For example, when I was younger I was placed in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, because my English according to my teachers was not efficient. I would question myself every day when I use to attend those classes thinking that I was different from everybody else. In some ways I felt stupid for speaking two languages not just one. But as I grew older I realized that those classes, peoples stares, and being able to communicate in two languages made me the person I am today. “I wanted to capture what language ability test can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts“ (pg38). In the same way Tan’s was able to see how to appreciate her and her mothers many “Englishes”, It in many similar ways has helped me. Appreciate who I am.