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Thinh Duong
English 1010
Instructor: Michelle Szetela
16 October , 2012
The language of immigrants
In “Mother Tongue ”, Amy Tan tells us about various forms of English that people from
around the word utilize as they immigrate to the United States and adapt to the American culture
and purposely she wants who speak Americans English have a different look about them. By
using the three rhetorical appeals (logos, pathos, ethos), Tan presents an emotional story and
successfully in conveying the difficulty of life how her mother have to struggle with as well as
her. Audiences that Tan wants to reach including many type of people. The first audience Tan
reaches to are people like her mother who speaks broken English daily trying to socialize with
the community: they are still partly ignorant as the way they receive less respectfulness from
others or being taken advantage of. The second audience Tan wants to mention is who likes Amy
Tan: have an intimacy language with their family and the obligation to take care of their parent,
sometime be in the same circumstance with her. Finally is to who speak “proper” English have
misconception about Immigrant who speak limited English. Through the essay, she describes
what her mother’s English like, how it affected her mom’s life and specially how that language
shaped the way she saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world as using her
indispensable second language.
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“Mother Tongue” is about the writer’s rumination and felling about how “broken English”
compares to standard English. Amy Tan illustrates her intimate language by using her own
mother as an inspiration. Firstly, she describes how limited English is and the disadvantage of it
by including consequences of her mother’s life and herself. Sometime, she felt down of her
mother’s broken English, especially feel insecure for her mother because some people treat
Mrs.Tan in such a disrespectful manner as she doesn’t speak “proper” English. However, she
now sees things from a different perspective. Deeply inside of heart, she is proud of it, proud of
how it constructs her thought, her imaginary, and the way it enhances her daily communication.
She conveyed her thought in her essay which is the power of language, the diversity of English,
the essential key in enabling individuals to establish and define the dimensions of their identity.
Amy Tan describes the different Englishes between her and her mother. She first
determines the term of “broken or fractured” English by giving an excerpt of a conversation she
had with her mother on videotape and later transcribed. The excerpt included a lot of short
fragmented sentences such as “Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom Chinese social life
that way. If too important won’t have to stay too long” (Tan 1). The fact that the author’s mother
doesn’t speak the way “Americans” but Tan’s mother did indeed know what she was trying to
say and was in fact relaying her story very clearly. The author’s use of specific examples is very
beneficial because not only does it make the point in the story, it gives the reader a reference
that they can apply to their daily live.
By using pathos Amy Tan points out how people who speak “proper” English look down
on who don’t. First of all, she goes on to give examples of this truth in action when she writes
about how her mother was treated: “people in department stores , at banks, and at restaurants did
not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her or even
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acted as they not hear her”. For the only reason she speak non-native English as referred to
fracture or broken English. This is a proof and a reality of how others look on Tan’s mother or
people have the same issue with Tan’s mother .Another good example of using pathos is when
Tan explains how her mother would have her call and complain to people or ask for information
over the phone:
Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing
me money “Amy states that she would be very embarrassed when in this
situations because she would be speaking proper English, unlike her mom. She
would say the same thing but in proper English like “Yes, I am getting rather
concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.
(Tan 2)
This is the only way that Tan knew she would get the respect her mother deserved, the respect
that she did not get by speaking “broken” or “fractured” English. Sure enough, as she states in
her novel, what she was complaining about in one of her phone calls got resolved the following
week, and this rarely would have happened if her mom would have called. As readers I think we
can see how pitiful she is and feel unacceptable for those people. Describing his mother’s
situation, it appeals the sympathy from people for who is discriminated like her mother.
Amy Tan also uses logos to indicate assumption that it’s impossible for her to master
English. The author also talks about how the English language has developed different meanings
for her over time , how in school she had struggled with standardized tests in English saying
they were more of a judgment call then a clear cut answer such as math and science. She starts to
recall her test scores in different subjects in school:
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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 on
achievement tests. But those scores were not good enough to override the opinion
that my true abilities lay in math and science, because in those areas I achieved
A's and scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher. (Tan 3)
Knowing that her native language isn't English, you can see how fair is it to be ridiculed
of dreaming a life profession with use of the English language. Although she had a hard time
with English throughout her life she declared it as a major in college, in a state of rebellion, and
began her writing career. She lately broke down the assumption about her as an Asian.
For ethos, Tan makes personal references to her mother and factual events, as well as a
description of her own accomplishments, which give credibility to her and her work. Tan uses
different examples of how her mother is often disrespected and treated poorly because of the way
she speaks .An example of her ethos style is when she informs the reader about her mother’s
tumor:
The hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan… She
said they would not give her any more information until next time… So she said
she would not leave until the doctor called her daughter…And when the doctor
finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English-- lo and behold --we
had assurances the CAT scan would be found…(Tan 2)
This example was based on the fact that Amy’s mother could not speak perfect English, where
her mother could not, and no service or apologies were offered to her. In this case of her mom,
you can see as a reader how pitiable she really is. With the limited English, she could not do
anything further except waiting for her daughter who is the writer. Tan’s tone seemed to be on
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the sarcastic side while describing her mother being discriminated for not speaking properly. She
gave the readers a superb example of how most Americans infer that information from people
who don’t speak English fluently is of less quality than people who do. According to this part,
she wants her mother to be treated equal as an American.
Amy Tan’s article is very interesting and emotional to wide audience. Tan excelled in
using rhetorical devices. There was a good variety of sentence fluency, there was logical tone,
and superior word choice was present. Army is successful in conveying the difficulty of life how
her mother have to struggle with as well as her. Otherwise, Amy Tan perceive the power of
English as using in variety way of different people. According to the novel, its purpose is to
wake-up who have a wrong vision about immigrant who do not speak proper English, not to
judge or bring them down but let’s together help them out. And in addition, it’s a motivate power
who likes Tan’s mother to be courage to speak English as using their mother tongue. Tan
accomplished perfectly in conveying her thought to readers because at least her mother could
understand the article easily and at least through this essay, readers or typically me can
sympathizes with people like her mother.
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Works cited
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Across Cultures. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Singleton.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999. Print .26-31.