“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan Use the text to answer the following questions. List words in the text that Tan uses to explain what she is not List words that explain how Tan describes herself. Throughout the text, Tan mentions types of English. What are they and how does she describe them? Read lines 9-21. Explain what Tan realized during her talk. Support your answer with explicit textual evidence. Read lines 31-49. Describe in your own words the English spoken by Tan’s mother. Read lines 50-68. List words from the text that Tan uses to describe her mother’s English. Read lines 50-68. List words from the text that show how others perceive Tan’s mother’s English. Define “belies” as it is used in the text. Define “empirical” as it is used in the text. Define “guise” as it is used in the text. Find the text that explains how Tan’s mother’s English “almost had an effect on limiting Tan’s possibilities in life.” Read lines 170-191. List the four types of English Tan describes. Explain why Tan finally felt she had succeeded. Finish working on the short response that you began yesterday. The prompt is to trace the structure of Tan’s essay, describing both its organization and its methods. How does the structure of her essay support her purpose? Cite evidence from the text to support your response. Your response should be 6-8 well thought out sentences. FAKE/INCOMPLETE ANSWERS WILL BE REPORTED AND REMOVED.

Answer and Explanation:

1. Tan uses words like "scholar", "not", "English" and "literature" to describe what she is not. She does not want the reader to see her as an academic who has studied the English language in a deep and detailed way and therefore can give scientific and historical opinions about the language.

2. She uses words like "I am", "writer", "someone", "loved", "literature", to indicate what she is. By this, she means that all of her arguments shown in the text are based on her experiences as a writer and as someone who has always loved and valued some English.

3. For Amy, the different types of English are related to people's experiences with the language and the way they use it. Amy believes that colloquial English and formal English are not the only types of English that exist in the country, since it is formed by people with the most different possible background. She uses her own mother as an example. That's because her mother attended a lecture, where she used technical and academic terms, which her mother did not know, which made Amy realize that she was using English that was not inclusive and that did not cover the entire audience.

4. The English spoken by Amy's mother is not a formal and elaborate English, it is an English that is considered "broken", but that allows him to communicate. So, even if Amy's mother does not speak the language within the required standards, the English she speaks is efficient, since it allows communication and that is what matters within a language.

5. Amy uses words like 'broken', 'fractured' and 'limited' to describe her mother's English, although she does not like these titles, because they give the impression that her mother does not speak a complete language, but something inappropriate , wrong and uncomfortable that needs to be fixed.

6. People define Amy's mother's English as unreachable, unremarkable. Often people pretend not to understand her or do not give her enough attention, even if her mother's English is understandable with a certain effort and respect from the individuals.

7. "Belies" when used in the text has the meaning of "contradicting", "cheating". Amy uses this in the lines "You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands," to express that the way her mother speaks contradicts her ability to understand the English language, even deceiving many people .

8. The word "guise" also takes on the meaning of deceiving, since Amy's mother knew about her limitations in speaking the language and knew that people would not pay attention and relevance to her, so she asked Amy to pretend be her when she called someone, because she knew that people would answer and pay attention to Amy. This word was used in the line "In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her."

9. Amy believes that since she had direct contact with her mother while growing up and learning to communicate, her English was almost affected by the way her mother spoke. This is because she learned to speak to her mother and this explains why she felt some difficulty with school tests related to English.

10. Amy believes that she was exposed to four types of English, her mother's "broken" English, her friends' informal English, college academic English and everyday English. She felt that she achieved success in this medium, when she managed to challenge herself and write in a way that anyone, regardless of the type of English she speaks, could understand her.

11. Amy's essay is organized showing first her perceptions of childhood and adolescence with the English that her mother spoke, along with the perception of how her mother was treated due to speech. She advances the essay, showing how it affected her at school and college, ending by showing how important it was for her to understand the plurality of the language and its many facets, which directly influenced her life as a writer. Amy does not use persuasive methods, but a simple and direct language that uses personal elements of herself, which makes her essay so special and immersive.