Mother Tongue

Blog Post #2: Mother Tongue

In English class today we had a heated discussion on the topic of mother tongues. However not what people usually associate the phrase "mother tongue"
which is the language which a person has grown up speaking from early childhood, but more of the way her mother actually speaks to her in the essay.
This story "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan, discusses the difficulties and struggles her mom has had to gone through not being able to speak formal English,
and the way she has had to cope with her mother as a child. But mainly this essay in my perspective was her interpretation on phrases such as "broken English, limited,
or fractured English". She discusses the main fact, how most people didn't understand her mother's way of speaking. Thus not taking her mother seriously
in shops, banks etc. It was because of this that the writer was embarrassed by her mom's way of English, but now grown out of that stage and realizes that
there is no specific way to speak English. For the reason that it is so international, and there are many types of English not just one. That's what bring me to my next
topic: stereotypes. People make accusations about people who do not speak English as their first language, do not have knowledge on the language itself. This accusation
is not true at all. Yes, true there are a lot of them who are great at maths and science however that does not mean in any way that makes them less capable at English just because
it is not their first language. Just like in the essay where her mom is not able to speak English formally, however she's able to read "Forbes" magazine and the "Wall Street Journal".
Thus proving that she does have a wide range of knowledge on the English language, but just does not know how to speak it properly just because it is not her first language.
I believe that is the point that Amy Tan tried to get across is that Asians are not just capable at being good at science and math, but also English.