Mother Tongue

Amy Tan wrote an essay called Mother Tongue to tell about her and her mother’s experiences with English language. In this essay she chooses to include quotation from her mother rather than paraphrasing her words. This choice was very effective because it leaves her mother’s speech untainted. Tan talks about there being different Englishes. She uses one in her writing and another with her family. These quotations allows you to hear her mother’s English.

“Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off the street kind. He is Du like Du Zong — but not Tsung- ming Island people. The local people call putong, the river east side, he belong to that side local people. That man want to ask Du Zong father take him in like become own family. Du Zong father wasn’t look down on him, but didn’t take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. Now important person, very hard to inviting him. Chinese way, came only to show respect, don’t stay for dinner. Respect for making big celebration, he shows up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social life that way. If too important won’t have to stay too long. He come to my wedding. I didn’t see, I heard it. I gone to boy’s side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen.”

In great contrast to her mother’s English, Tan’s English when writing is very complex and grammatical. She says that she uses “nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, and conditional phrases”. None of which can be found in her mothers English and none of which she would use in front of her mother. In one of the drafts of her book she wrote, “That was my mental quandary in its nascent state”. She criticized herself for this statement because it was not her true language. She grew up with her mothers English and most likely spoke it at one time. It is her roots and she feels wrong saying these complicated statements that she can barely say. Speaking her mother’s English will make English speakers think she is inferior but that is her language that is her English. It does not make her any less intelligent than any proliferate English writer. When language is so complex that you cannot understand it there is no point. It is more important for your words to be meaningful even if it is simple.