Mother Tongue by Amy Tan - Essay Example

 “Mother Tongue” by Amy TanIntroduction This article talks about how the writer views and compares Standard English to ‘broken English’. The author comments that individuals are not only authorized by language to involve themselves as members of their designated communities, but also given the freedom to define and establish the proportions of their identity (Tan 1). The article tells of how it is difficult for Asian Americans to get through the challenges of the English language. The first part of the essay focused on the different versions of English that the author learned and used throughout her life.

The second part of the essay concentrated on the difficulties that she experienced through her school life because English was not her strong point (Tan 3). Lastly, the essay tells of how she got into many problems as a result of the way her mother spoke English. In my opinion, it is easy to use many different languages with different people without even realizing it (Tan 2). For example, it is easy to speak proper English with people who speak proper and correct English. The author has done a great a job at showing the readers this fact.

This is through showing us that when she spoke with her mother, English language was usually broken and simpler. She could not even understand the difference herself until her friends told her how her mother spoke. This article is very useful in helping readers to correct the mistakes that they make when speaking English. This is because it can help readers to understand the differences of correct English and broken English as they use it over time, thus bettering themselves (Tan 4). This can help many people to overcome various hurdles they face in using English language.

Lastly, it is evident that having a background where people use broken and incorrect English can seriously affect the way one communicates in English. This is because one gets used to using broken, simple and incorrect English and may find it difficult to distinguish it from correct and proper English. It takes determination and mixing with people who use proper English to be able to succeed in using English language the right way (Tan 5).Work CitedTan, Amy. Mother Tongue. Web.