When this occurred, everyone was much more cordial with Amy than with her mother: promises were made and apologies graciously extended. 2)? Tan identify the different categories she discusses in "Mother Tongue" almost in the last paragraph, where she named all the kind of English she uses. https://www.etsy.com/shop/TolentinoTeaching?ref=seller-platform-mcnavSubscribe to Tolentino Teaching for online teaching resources: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxVnC3TU90xGfwGGJj--dHA?view_as=subscriberHere is the software I use to make my videos: https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=18708\u0026awinaffid=844903\u0026p=Where I get my background music: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/pg826v/Microphone I use: https://amzn.to/3kYpflxMy favorite books on writing:The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker: https://amzn.to/38m0FWmHow to Argue with a Cat by Jay Hendrichs: https://amzn.to/2MWQXCsThe Elements of Style Fourth Edition: https://amzn.to/2MZeentOn Writing Well by William Zinsser: https://amzn.to/30ouPnJMy Social Media LinksInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/tolentinoteaching/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tolentinoteaching/?eid=ARCDTu1yPrWNU95MIiqiab32h2xup6OJBVFlENV03XB6HHUOFxeS0gGlYvdIx-bKlzwzEW7N8uwtCagPTwitter: https://twitter.com/TolentinoTeach**Disclaimer: Tolentino Teaching is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and AWIN, affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com and http://paidforadvertising.com/ What is Amy Tans primary identity according to what she says in paragraphs 1-3 of "Mother Tongue"? 2. Students may conclude that Tan and her mother did not have a close relationship if they support this opinion with valid examples. All of these questions will help you pinpoint the essays effectiveness. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. 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 onachievement tests. What does that phrase mean to you? Hopefully this list leaves you feeling like youre no longer short on ideas for your analysis of this short story. Underline the verb in parentheses that correctly completes the sentence by agreeing with the subject. In Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue", Tan reveals how she was sculpted into the successful writer she is from the struggles of language speaking her mother had to face. What is the context of Mother Tongue? Describe how others (those who do not know her intimately) see Tan's mother versus how Tan describes her in "Mother Tongue." After youve written your literary analysis, and you dont feel very confident in it, pass it along to one of the Kibin editors. Award-winning novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as, "Even though Tom was, Mary thought he was --. 4 0 obj Tan wrote 'Mother Tongue' in 1990, a year after her novel The Joy Luck Club was a runaway success. Explain the meaning of Tans title and how it relates to her own identity as both a Chinese American, a daughter, and a writer. ACCTG 205: CH 1 Vocabulary. There can be one tone throughout the entire piece or many different tones. -the piece is about how Amy's mom speaks (original language); Amy's mother had a different language then her own. She then contrasts this with a moment when she was walking down the street with her mother and she used the more clipped, informal English she naturally uses with her mother, and her husband. Do you think her idea is valid? You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived.". Explain why Tan calls herself a rebel in "Mother Tongue" and how this identity led to her becoming a writer. Include details from the text. But I wince when I say that. This shows how the way English is spoken affects how one is treated. Already a member? 6 0 obj It's my mother tongue. Fortunately, there are several different literary devices you can concentrate on for your literary analysis. /Type /XObject I knew what the tests were asking, but I could not block out of my mind the images already created by the first pair, "sunset is to nightfall"--and I would see a burst of colors against a darkening sky, the moon rising, the lowering of a curtain of stars.And all the other pairs of words --red, bus, stoplight, boring--just threw up a mass of confusing images, making it impossible for me to sort out something as logical as saying: "A sunset precedes nightfall" is the same as "a chill precedes a fever." I've heard other terms used, "limited English," for example. "How Poetry Comes to Me" TPCASTT // Gary Snyd, "Common Ground" TPCASTT // Judith Ortiz Cofer, SpringBoard English Language Arts: Grade 10, myPerspectives: English Language Arts, California (Grade 9, Volume 1), Glencoe Literature Course 4: The Readers Choice. Like others, I have described it to people as 'broken" or "fractured" English. Spend some time evaluating the essays structure, and analyze whether it is right for Mother Tongue. Would it have been better as a novel or a poem, or is a short narrative the way to go? Do you agree that family members have the greatest effect on a child's intellectual development? Discuss how this is present in her writing of "Mother Tongue. -allows Amy to go in to saying how she was effected by her mother's tongue. indiiigo. Life Span 4 . Amy Tan born in 1952 in California to Chinese immigrants. -7 space 17 space. It was most gratifying to Amy Tan when her mother read The Joy Luck Club, Amy's first book. c. Her mother relies on and trusts Tan to talk to the doctors about the CAT scan. She alludes to several instances where people, even a doctor, would not take her mother seriously because of the way she spoke. But where Tan really gets to something deep, is this idea how we acquire language. And here you would be presented with a list of four possible pairs, one of which showed the same kind of relationship: red is to stoplight, bus is to arrival, chills is to fever, yawn is to boring: Well, I could never think that way. She says this because it could have impacted her in developing the English skills that were expected in school. Later, the gangster became more powerful, far richer than my mother's family, and one day showed up at my mother's wedding to pay his respects. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of languagethe way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.. 1 2 . On what were these descriptions and perceptions based according to paragraphs 15-16 of "Mother Tongue"? 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. What are some good things Andrew Carnegie did? Eden Meirow is a full-time copywriter and part-time freelance writer. w !1AQaq"2B #3Rbr Amy Tan says that she has come to realize that something unusual goes on with languageat least her own, based upon the Chinese her mother grew up speaking, the English her mother uses as her "second language," Amy's use of this special version of her mother's English, and her own perception that her mother's English was somehow "broken"at least this is how Ms. Tan used to feel. When her mother told her that what she had written was easy to read, Tan knew that she had succeeded in her aims as a writer. In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan explains that she uses multiple "Englishes" in her daily life. She struggled with tests which asked students to pick a correct word to fill in the blanks in a sentence because she was distracted by the imaginative and poetic possibilities of other words. Tan refers to how much language impacts/changes our lives. Tan mentions several different emotions when talking about her mothers English. Tan was born in Oakland, California, two and a half years after her parents fled China's Communist revolution and settled in the United States. So she said she would not leave until the doctor called her daughter. Tan explains, "This was understandable. In fact, Tan uses the same tone in the beginning and end of her storythe reader starts at a homebase, sees the journey Tan is leading them on, and returns right back to where they started but with more insight than before. It is not simply, as she first thought, that one type of English is correct and the other incorrect. Tan, by contrast, used standard English what used to be referred to, in loaded phrases, as correct or proper English and was thus able to succeed in getting herself, and by extension her mother, taken seriously by others. It explores these ideas through how Amy and her mother use the English language, and how Amy uses the English language differently around her mother than she does in professionalized contexts. I didn't see, I heard it. three subjects Accessed 2 May 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. "Mother tongue," as it is used in the title of this piece, is a pun on the traditional idea. So mad he lie to me, losing me money. As her mother wasn't able to speak English fluently, she wasn't taken seriously by the staff. Tan wrote Mother Tongue in 1990, a year after her novel The Joy Luck Club was a runaway success. To what extent do you think that speaking a non- standardized English (through grammatical differences or an accent) "limits . Tan uses an example of her mother going to New York to yell at her stockbroker, after not receiving her check from cashing out her portfolio, to show us that even though her language skills were sub par, she could still very effectively communicate her feelings and ideas. Latest answer posted March 29, 2020 at 10:08:05 AM. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person's developing language skills are more influenced by peers. She observes that her mother is treated differently because of the way she speaks. Like off the street kind. << 6. Find examples of peopleincluding Tan herselftreating her mother disrespectfully. In referring back to her experiences through the anecdotes, Tan realizes that she uses a different type of English when with her mother. possibilities" for people in the United States today? Because of her broken English, Amy's mother was told by the doctors that they lost her scan and did not apologize nor care about it. I am not a scholar of English or literature. 18, Tan)". /Filter /DCTDecode What motivates her to make such an argument? Because she was in a family where their home language wasn't English, her scores in English weren't as good as the ones she received in math. Tans autobiographical revelations in Mother Tongue show us that her own mother struggled to be taken seriously among Americans, and Tan diagnoses this struggle as a result of her mothers different way of speaking. b. Tan, her husband, and her mother go out together. Every piece of literature, whether its an epic novel or a haiku, has some sort of structurewhich is simply the organization of the material. 6) rather than paraphrasing what she said? How does she use language in the rest of her story to portray this rebelliousness? Explain. WhowasJohnWilkesBooth? What does the title "Mother Tongue" suggest? Why or why not? Chinese custom. But many people who hear her mother speak can only partially understand what she is saying, and some even say they can understand nothing of what she says, as if she were speaking pure Chinese to them. spirituals. /Creator ( w k h t m l t o p d f 0 . /Width 625 Latest answer posted March 28, 2020 at 6:52:46 PM. /Producer ( Q t 4 . It is evident that Tan wants to avoid stereotyping in her essay. Each story holds a key to understanding her main argument points. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others. You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. For example, people with European accents may be perceived as "snooty" or "uptight", while those who speak in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) can be seen as "ghetto" or "thuggish". Accept any answers that address the concern of the question and are elaborated by examples or details from the literature or from life. eNotes Editorial, 10 Nov. 2019, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/in-amy-tan-s-short-story-mother-tongue-explain-258339. But it does have a loose progression. Mother Tongue by Amy Tan - Essay Summary, Analysis, Review 742 views May 19, 2022 25 Dislike The CodeX Cantina 17.6K subscribers Welcome to the CodeX Cantina where our mission is to get. Even though language is not an object you can hold, Amy Tan still uses language to symbolize different, more ambiguous concepts. Print. In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan explains that she uses multiple "Englishes" in her daily life. With the stockbroker, Tan was the one who would step in for her mother over the phone in order to express her mother's thoughts for her. Test. M.A. What is Tan's strategy behind including a lengthy, direct quotation from her mother (para. How do they further her argument? ", how did amy describe her mother's english, math and science (precise and exact answers). Use Tan's ideas about different kinds of English from "Mother Tongue" as a basis to consider the kinds of English you encounter every day. What are the "different Englishes" (para. A good literary analysis might explain these transitions, and how they affect the structure of the piece. But now you have to do a literary analysis on itand suddenly its short length seems like more of a burden than a blessing. Multiple-choice 30 seconds 1 pt Who's the author of the story? Mother tongue commonly means the language first learned by a person, but for the author, Amy Tan, it has a special meaning. Amy Tan, in full Amy Ruth Tan, (born February 19, 1952, Oakland, California, U.S.), American author of novels about Chinese American women and the immigrant experience. Still, she said, the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing. It's my mother tongue. -speech-like; "I was giving a talk to a large group of people." Tan grew up in Northern California, but when her father and older brother both died from brain tumors in 1966, she moved with her. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Write a journal entry from the perspective of Richard the Lion-Hearted during the Crusades. 16, Tan)". /AIS false The author notes that the language her mother speaks is very different than "American English," but that it is deceiving in that her mother understands more than one might think when listening to her speak. What we would call proper English symbolizes both Tans acceptance into American society and a separation from her mother. The title of Amy Tans essay is a pun on the expression mother tongue, referring to ones first language. Our experts can deliver a "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan essay tailored to your instructions for only $13.00 $11.05/page 308 qualified specialists online Learn more Main text Tan says she uses "simple English" around her mother, and while this isn't the same form that her mother speaks, it symbolizes the bond between her and her family. This English is expressive, grammatically distant from proper forms, hard to understand for some native English speakers, and perfectly comfortable to Amy. When Amy gave this talk to an audience that included her mother, it caused her to reflect on the distance between the language that she uses in the world of her career and the language that she grew up with at home and still uses with her husband in the present day. Amy's mother refused to leave the office until someone called her daughter. What is similar between Tan's more contemporary version of the American Dream and the novel Of Mice and Men? In dividing the essay into sections, she is able to flow through to her points clearly and subtly. "The S, The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric, Lawrence Scanlon, Renee H. Shea, Robin Dissin Aufses. Take a practice test. This is the sociological aspect of language. She is just as special a person, despite what language she uses or how she uses it. This was understandable. Amy sets up this comparison by describing a talk that she gave about a book and had given so many times before that it was entirely familiar to her. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world. You may also wish to discuss some of the emotions that a king in battle might be feeling. << The different forms of English that mother and daughter speak are also a product of their backgrounds: whilst Tans mother is a Chinese immigrant to America, Tan was born in the United States and has grown up, and been educated, in an English-speaking culture. while growing up, what assumption did Amy Tan make about her mother because of her mother's language skills? Although Tan clearly appeals to pathos through personal narration and characterization, she makes some appeals to logos. The main idea of Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" is the limitations that imperfect English can impose in society and the richness that such English can bring to writing. In paragraph 18, she talks about how she's seen (in surveys) how most Asian students as a whole do significantly better on math tests than English ones. In both cases, the perception based on her mother's "limited" English gave people the idea that Amy's mother wasn't very bright, or worse, was not worth their time. "And the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, "Even though Tom was shy, Mary thought he was charming:' with the grammatical structure "even though" limiting the correct answer to some sort of semantic opposites, so you wouldn't get answers like, "Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was ridiculous:' Well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. 7) It helps us to understand the way Tan approaches and uses language within the stories that make up The Joy Luck Club. More recent to this story, her mother had been diagnosed with a benign brain tumor, but when she went to the doctor's office, the CAT scan was lost and no one was remotely concerned with her need to understand her prognosishaving lost a husband and son, both to brain tumors. Although Amy Tan was born in the United States, her writing is shaped to a great degree by the immigrant experience. She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with ease--all kinds of things I can't begin to understand. She makes this argument in various ways. Answer: to inform readers based on Tan's childhood experience Explanation: Amy tan is a Chinese-American writer, she is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and her books reflect a lot on what she has experienced witnessing the culture clash between Chinese and North American cultures. Jing-mei's mother quizzes her on various topicsincluding state and national capitals, complicated mathematics, and weather predictionin hopes that she might possess a talent like the children. Just because there are several tones throughout Mother Tongue doesnt mean that there isnt one overarching tone. Why? She points out that her mother is intelligent and reads things which Tan herself cannot begin to understand. >> Describe what the fighting is like and what you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of your army. How does she establish ethos by this juxtaposition? I was saying things like, "The intersection of memory upon imagination" and "There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus-and-thus'--a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother. endobj Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. It's my mother tongue. Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue" is a wonderful tale that addresses the substance of languages and how language is not only a tool of communication, but a sociological tool of measuring individual worth. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience. When they called her daughter, who had perfect English, they suddenly found her scan. Tan grew up in California and in Switzerland and studied English and linguistics at San Jose State University (B.A., 1973; M.A., 1974) and the University of California, Berkeley. Explain the meaning of Tans title and how it relates to her own identity as both a Chinese American, a daughter, and a writer. Amy Tan "Mother Tongue" How do you want to study today? This is not to say that people of other countries do not learn English as well, but generally there is a language specific to the place where they were born: this is their mother tongue. Language is thus more than just a cultural marker: Tan reveals, in Mother Tongue, the extent to which it is a tool of power (or, depending on the use, powerlessness), particularly for those from migrant backgrounds. d. Her mother is the audience (reader) for The Joy Luck Club, a book about mother-and-daughter relationships. What is the context of Mother Tongue? %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz Tan does a great job incorporating several different tones into such a short piece. -she uses four types of English (the English she grew up with) If you believe she is guilty of some stereotyping, discuss examples. In a short essay "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan reveals her background and describes different kinds of English that she had to speak in her childhood and adolescence. Tan divides the essay into three sections. I was giving a talk to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. Be sure to focus on specific language, punctuation, and imagery used to create the overall tone. 11th Grade - Poems by Emily Dickinson: She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with easeall kinds of things I can't begin to understand. Here's what she said in part: "Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Du Zong father wasn't look down on him, but didn't take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. The class tests at school which reduced English proficiency to an ability to recognise a correct answer are thus contrasted with Tans resounding final words of Mother Tongue, which see her seeking to capture the passion of her mother, the nature of her thoughts, and the imagery she uses: all things which her daughter has clearly inherited a respect for, and which school tests fail to capture or observe. b. Tan." That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of. How did railroads help boost industrialization? check out these example essays on Mother Tongue.. 62-67. Mother Tongue questions & answers for quizzes and worksheets - Quizizz English Mother Tongue Deleted User 87 plays 15 questions Copy & Edit Live Session Show Answers See Preview 1. /Subtype /Image Do you feel that people's abilities can be judged fairly by these kinds of tests? 3 0 obj c. The story helps readers understand one of Tan's points: her mother's English does have intent, passion, imagery, and rhythm, and it shows the complexity of her thoughts. She recounts a time when the doctors at the hospital were unsympathetic towards her mother when they lost the results of the CAT scan they had undertaken on her brain, but as soon as the hospital at her mothers insistence called her daughter, they issued a grovelling apology. "What argument is Tan making here about language and its connection to our identity in "Mother Tongue"? 6. Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: "So easy to read.". She says even her husband started speaking this kind of English together and that it has come to represent intimacy. She said she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Who is the intended audience for "Mother Tongue"? The mother tongue shapes. It is their "language of intimacy," even though he is a native English speaker. 4. 5. In paragraph 6, Tan quotes part of one of her mother's conversations. "Mother tongue," as it is used in the title of this piece, is a pun on the traditional idea. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. Students are most likely to conclude that Tan and her mother do have a close relationship and should support their opinion with at least three of the following examples: a. Use Tan's ideas about different kinds of English from "Mother Tongue" as a basis to consider the kinds of English you encounter every day. This text is a great starting point for discussions on culture, language and more. Tan uses points from her personal life and from her work to show that there is no need to separate one's language and identity. Works have been adapted for film, opera, and TV mother tongue first language Whom does the author focus on in this narrative? All together, we expect forty or fifty volunteers to work on the project. She used all of the "Englishes" she grew up with, giving her more connection to her work, and with the audience as well. d. infraction, Identify the following term or individuals and explain their significance. /ColorSpace /DeviceRGB Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. What organizational pattern does Tan use in "Mother Tongue," and how does she control her tone? Does the story feel complete as is? Tan calls this clipped informal language her mother tongue, because it was the first language she learned and it helped to shape the way she saw the world and made sense of it. 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 acted as if they did not hear her. Get started for free! She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors. . What is the author's purpose, style, and tone in the story? What Tan is classifying in this essay is the different kinds of English she uses. Accessed 2 May 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. Include details from the text. Paraphrasing her mother's words would take away from the audience's understanding of the exact type of language boundaries they were dealing with. I've heard other terms used, "limited English," for example. What motivates her to make such an argument?" What is the author's purpose, style, and tone in the story? In Amy Tan's short story "Mother Tongue," explain the essence of what "mother tongue" signifies in the story. The difference is in the application of the phrase, which is between general and specific. How is Amy Tan's use of the phrase "mother tongue" ambiguous? Learn. In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan uses people's inclination to assume as a way of exploring the subject of identity. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child.
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