How are children’s lives influenced by language?
This is a pertinent question probed in Amy Tan's “Mother Tongue”. In the book, Amy Tan shares her personal opinions on the use of English language in different countries and the impact of language on children’s lives. The author is fascinated by language and its role in people’s daily lives. In “Mother Tongue,” Tan seeks to demonstrate how challenging it can be to be raised by parents who speak limited English the way her mother does (Tan 432). The reason is that it can make other people judge you poorly. Tan’s mother was her primary care giver, hence a crucial part of her childhood. As such, Tan’s mother had a powerful influence on her style of writing. Having been raised by her mother, Tan learnt that individuals’ perception of the world is strongly rooted on the language they speak at home. Similarly, people’s views of one another are largely based on the language used. To present her ideas, Amy Tan connects with her audience by smartly using strategic forms of ethos, pathos, and logos.
Amy Tan sympathizes with immigrants
Amy Tan sympathizes with immigrants who were perceived to be speaking “broken” or to have “limited” command on the English language by stating how her mother was not taken seriously or treated with courtesy. Tan, at a very young age, pretended to be her mother over the phone just because her mother realized her weakness in the English Language, and she was ashamed of it (Tan 434). Tan shared her mother’s hospital incident as an example when her mother was not treated well because of her weakness in English.
The impact of language on development
The author feels that her mother’s limitation on English has affected her language development as well as her IQ level. Tan’s statement that “the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families, plays a large role in shaping the language of a child” clearly states that the author has used logos to express a connection between language and skill development in children. Also, Tan logically argues that she believes that this could be the reason why there are many Asian Americans in engineering rather than creative writing program.
The ethical dilemmas faced by Tan
Amy Tan makes use of appeal to ethos while sharing one of the incidents when she was forced by her mother to pretend to be her and talk to people on her behalf. While sympathizing with her mother’s limited English ability, Tan also felt embarrassed and unethical to guise as her mother. She stated, “I was ashamed of my mother’s broken English” (Tan 437). She also includes problem and solution while detailing how she was compelled to talk for her mother. Tan believes that if you do not speak good English, individuals will not take you seriously. To prove this, Tan explains how her mother often experienced this type of attitude. She goes ahead to sympathetically describe how she was forced to call the stockbroker since her mother was worried about failing to get a check, as well as how the hospital could not bother looking for a lost CAT scan before Tan appeared to mediate (Tan 439). She sympathizes with the fact that despite her mother speaks English, she still had to act as a translator.
The message conveyed by Amy Tan
Overall, Amy Tan makes use of emotional, logical, and ethical strategies to convey her message to the readers, detailing “how growing up in immigrant families can affect children’s language developing skills.” She also focuses on struggles faced by immigrants because of poor command on the English language, arguing that nowadays, people are judged based on their language skills.
Works Cited
Tan, Amy. "Mother tongue." Enriching ESOL Pedagogy: Readings and Activities for Engagement, Reflection, and Inquiry, by Vivian Zamel, Ruth Spack. Lawrence Erlbaum (2002): 431-435.
