Running head: “Mother Tongue”
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Response Essay: Mother Tongue by Amy Tan
0010689
ENGL 112 Section 51
Instructor: Ann Newman
Gulf University for Science and Technology
August 6, 2014
Running head: “Mother Tongue”
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Response Essay: “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan
It’s startling how sometimes, in Kuwait, Kuwaitis deal with foreigners in a different
way than Kuwaitis deal with themselves, due to the language barrier. This situation happens
very frequently in Kuwait to foreigners who find speaking the Kuwaiti dialect extremely hard
to understand. For example, just the other day, as I was walking in one of the avenues of a
residential area, I overheard the loud voice of a mother speaking to her housemaid in a very
disrespectful manner to do a specific task. However the housemaid couldn’t respond in a
proper Kuwaiti dialect, so after the maid left, the mother complained to herself in a Kuwaiti
dialect which roughly translates to: “This housemaid is extremely stupid and does not
understand a single word I say!” This reminds me of a certain part of the story “Mother
Tongue,” by Amy Tan, as she wrote, “My mother has long realized the limitations of her
English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone and
pretend I was she” “And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly,” “Why he
don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.” “And
then I said in perfect English, “Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the
check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.” What Tan was getting to, is that when people
deal with foreigners who do not speak a proper language or speak in a broken language, they
tend to treat them unprofessionally and not take them seriously.
What Tan wrote about the broken language and how people with broken languages are
treated differently can be related to, because there have been many situations in my life where
I find a person who is either treated poorly or is not taken seriously. This is exactly what
happened to Tan’s mother when she went to the hospital for her CAT scan. However, when
Tan spoke with the staff in the hospital in a proper language, they responded professionally
and with great care to the request and all the problems were immediately resolved.
Running head: “Mother Tongue”
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In addition, Tan interested me when she wrote in her article about the ways in which a
person can learn grammatical language skills in addition to vocabulary and performance. A
person’s ability to perfect speaking, writing, reading and understanding a language depends a
lot on the people that you are in contact with. Therefore, family members, friends and even
coworkers can influence how you speak a certain language. It can easily be seen here in
Kuwait as people from Kuwait City speak in a different manner than people from Al-Jahra
area which is caused by each individual’s contact and social interactions with his or her
family friends and coworkers.
Also, I can agree with Tan that a broken language can probably trigger some sort of
prejudice or discrimination. Tan wrote in her article that due to her mother’s broken language
she has been offered bad service, people pretended not hear or understand her and she was not
taken seriously. Personally, I have witnessed many similar situations in which a person with a
broken language asks another person for a service. The person with the broken language was
either ignored or not taken seriously.
To conclude, a broken language can definitely pose as a barrier between people. A
broken language can make people treat each other in a different manner in addition to causing
many sorts of discrimination and prejudice. Also, a person's ability to speak a language
properly is heavily influenced by the people with whom they are in contact, such as family
members, friends and coworkers. As can be seen, a language barrier can have many impacts
on the way a person is treated.