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Megan Zullo
English
Professor Smith
Final draft
4/23/16

We all have A Mother Tongue

Out of all three essays my favorite by far was Mother Tounge by Amy Tan. Mother
tongue usually means the language first learned by a person, but for Amy Tan it has a special
meaning, limited language. which is the language her mother speaks. Tan felt so deeply about her
mother tongue because the limited language caused that many people misunderstood her
mother. The way Tans mother spoke made the native English speaker think that she wasnt able
to express her thoughts perfectly and that she didnt want to communicate with her. For example.
Tans mother in department stores, at banks, and the restaurants was not taken seriously, she
wasnt given good service, and the workers pretended not to understand her or even acted as if
they could hear her. The language she grew up with restricted her understanding of formal
English. She uses the qualifier almost to show that even though her understanding of formal
English was restricted, she went through the obstacles and became an English writer. This article
shows being resilient and hard working really can pay off.
Amy Tan wrote this essay to show us how language isolates those who dont speak the
common way as well as others. In paragraph 14, Tans mother had been diagnosed with a benign
brain tumor and when she went to the doctors office, the CAT scan was lost and no one seemed
concerned with her need to understand her prognosis. Her husband and son had both died of
brain tumors. When her daughter, Amy Tan, who spoke in perfect English came to translate for

her mother; the hospital promised that a conference call on Monday would be held, and
apologized for any suffering her mother had gone through. Based on her mothers limited
English it gave people a misunderstanding that Tans mother wasnt smart, and couldnt express
her thoughts well. This shows the sociological aspect of language meaning how people judge
others by the way they speak. In the story, Tan mentioned the envisioning reader would be her
mother, but I think the audience could be anyone reading this. I think we all can benefit from
this. Its important not only for the people struggling with communicating, but also for the person
trying to listen and receive the message, to be patient with one another. I think that language
barriers arent put there unless we get all defensive and build them.
One of the reasons I really enjoyed this piece, is because I can relate to Tan. My grandma
Zullo is from Italy. She has a very, very strong and thick accent. When I was younger I used to be
so embarrassed or even ashamed when we would be somewhere in public and my grandma being
the friendly woman she is would strike up a conversation with a random person and she would
make remarks throughout the conversation towards me like How you say sapatos in English?
Or Mi riena help me put thesewhats the word? Oh shoes! On my feets I would laugh and
often feel so embraced at her broken English. I feel so ashamed, for thinking that way. I was
young and didnt understand how hard it must be for her to learn English of all languages. The
older I get the more I realize that it takes a lot of courage to learn another language and to even
dare to speak it with someone who is fluent.
My grandma is a very incredible woman who sacrificed a lot to come here. I look up to
her immensely. Over the course of the years, my Italian has improved a little, and it turns out my
grandma is a very intelligent woman. She knows so much, but she struggles with converting her

knowledge into the English language. I think its unfair to assume that just because someone
does not speak your language they dont know anything. In fact I find it to be the opposite.

When I first read this story, the first thing I thought about was my mom. Her name is
Amy just like the author, so I instantly made that connection. My mom is an all American girl,
but she married my dad who is from Argentina and was born in Italy. When I was younger my
dad would speak a little bit of Castellanos Spanish with us, but not to the point that we could
have been bilingual.
In 9th grade I decided to take a Spanish class, mostly for college credit. My teacher was
from Mexico and she spoke traditional Spanish. I did well in the class, and the teacher told me
that I understood the language very well, my enunciation was good, but I wasnt speaking the
right kind of Spanish I was speaking Castellanos and we werent learning that in our class. It
was frustrating to me, because I pretty much had to relearn everything, but in a different way. It
was very difficult especially because my dad or grandma couldnt help me because they didnt
speak traditional Spanish. I ended up doing well in the class, but it was a challenge.
In conclusion the purpose of this article is that words are more than just words,
sometimes you have to look behind them and read in between to understand the true meaning.
For example, her mother did not speak perfect English, but the points and ideas she was trying to
get across are what really was important.
When she says that standard tests can't determine a person's intelligence, she is trying to
say how people have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence, and yet these
standard tests only can measure a certain type of intelligence, so it really is kind of unfair, for
lack of a better term. However despite all the adversity Tan faced at the end of the essay she

overcomes by celebrating the range of Englishs in her life. Reading an early draft of a story, Tan
realizes that the English she is using is far too academic. She resolves to write using the range of
English that she has used in her life, creating a vibrant story that eventually became the
bestselling novel "The Joy Luck Club." Had Tan not gone through this experience she would
have been a completely different author and person. English makes us who we are. And I am
grateful for the differences we share as humans. It makes us unique and special and we should all
acknowledge the mother Tounge we all have in our own lives.