mother tongue amy tan quizlet

Take a practice test. %PDF-1.4 eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of. 6) rather than paraphrasing what she said? Explain. Tan wrote 'Mother Tongue' in 1990, a year after her novel The Joy Luck Club was a runaway success. What does Tan mean by "the power of language" (para. Her mother's language is colorful, powerful, and direct. /Width 625 This shows how the way English is spoken affects how one is treated. I was giving a talk to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. This progression is typical of many stories, both long and short, but in this case you can apply it to tone as well. In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan uses people's inclination to assume as a way of exploring the subject of identity. 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. But Tans language, or tongue, has been shaped by her actual mother, whose first language (or mother tongue) was not English, but Chinese. Do you think her idea is valid? When Tan was growing up, how did her mother's use of English affect Tan's perception of her? 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. Mean gives lots of respect. In dividing the essay into sections, she is able to flow through to her points clearly and subtly. So I never did well on tests like that. She had more difficulty answering questions presented in English class due to the nature of language, being able to be interpreted in more than one way. Describe how others (those who do not know her intimately) see Tan's mother versus how Tan describes her in "Mother Tongue." How do these resemble chapters? 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. Latest answer posted March 28, 2020 at 9:26:15 PM. (Hint: Think about how she defies modern language standards and refuses to call her mothers language broken or limited without putting those terms in quotation marks.). This is a key part of Feathers from a Thousand Li Away, and it helps us to understand Tans conflicted attitude towards her mothers use of language as explored in Mother Tongue. Envisioning her mother as the reader allowed Tan to write with more fluidity. What would be the impact of omitting one of them? check out these example essays on Mother Tongue.. The local people call putong, the river east side, he belong to that side local people. Latest answer posted March 29, 2020 at 10:08:05 AM. But it does have a loose progression. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. What is your response to Amy Tan's point about the value of different languages? 3 0 obj In one or two paragraphs, describe the personal experience that the writer had in "Mother Tongue", and the understanding she gained through her reflection about the experience. Tan divides the essay into three sections. I've heard other terms used, "limited English," for example. It is their "language of intimacy," even though he is a native English speaker. Then evaluate her message. 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. "But I have noticed in surveys in fact, just last week that Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English. three subjects Cite the text as needed to clarify and support your response. Much of Tans 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club is about daughters and their relationships with their mothers. (para. It is evident that Tan wants to avoid stereotyping in her essay. Review terms and definitions. Here is the text: http://www.umsl.edu/~alexanderjm/Mother%20Tongue%20by%20. $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ? Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. defining her mother's tongue and other's interpretations of it (their reactions) -defining her interpretation, others interpretation, and how it influenced her writing structure 1st part -1-7 -awareness of the diff types of English -nature of her mother's English Math is precise; there is only one correct answer. -she uses four types of English (the English she grew up with) Tan grew up speaking the formal acrolect of English she learned at school and the more vivid, less correct variety her mother used. You can read Mother Tongue here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of Amy Tans essay below. 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? How does this story help you better understand the point Tan is making in her essay? "Mother tongue," as it is used in the title of this piece, is a pun on the traditional idea. Here's what she said in part: "Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Cell Bio Exam 1. State your opinion in an essay, and support it with evidence from at least two of the essays. 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. spirituals. eNotes Editorial, 10 Nov. 2019, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/in-amy-tan-s-short-story-mother-tongue-explain-258339. Many of the terms, such as broken or limited, are too negative and imply her English is imperfect. Tan wrote Mother Tongue in 1990, a year after her novel The Joy Luck Club was a runaway success. Amy Tan "Mother Tongue" How do you want to study today? It helps us to understand the way Tan approaches and uses language within the stories that make up The Joy Luck Club. In Amy Tan's short story "Mother Tongue," explain the essence of what "mother tongue" signifies in the story. 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. "Mother tongue," as it is used in the title of this piece, is a pun on the traditional idea. What strategies does she use to make this How did Tans teachers identify her when she was in high school? Sample answer: Communication is more about intent than specific words and word usage. How would you describe Tan's attitude toward her mother? In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan explains that she uses multiple "Englishes" in her daily life. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others. 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. Finally, Tan highlights the absurdity of writing a book about the relationships between mothers and daughters which her own mother could not understand. How do they differ? Amy Tan begins her essay by offering her personal opinions on the English language. /SMask /None>> I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, "This is Mrs. She wouldn't budge. She goes from being ashamed of her mothers speakingfeeling that other people will judge her familyto being proud of the rich culture behind her mothers English. her mother How does the author describe her mother's English early in the essay limited 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. /Height 155 -influenced Amy's writing (four Englishes) Identify the message of Tan's essay, "Mother Tongue." And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her. Latest answer posted October 28, 2019 at 10:43:03 PM, Latest answer posted November 08, 2020 at 3:49:32 AM. WhowasJohnWilkesBooth? 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. To what extent do you think that speaking a non- standardized English (through grammatical differences or an accent) "limits . b. Tan, her husband, and her mother go out together. think my mother's English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well. Hopefully this list leaves you feeling like youre no longer short on ideas for your analysis of this short story. But to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. Already a member? Tan, 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. 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. a. fragment This could create a gap in their education "level" as you usually don't absorb much of the content if you've no clue what the teacher is saying. If all the words in a numbered word group are correct, write C above it. 11th Grade - Poems by Emily Dickinson: 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. -talking to her mom "My mother was in the room", Tan quotes a "terrible line" she once wrote "That was my mental quandary in its nascent state." When writing about becoming an English major in college, Tan said that she had always been rebellious. eNotes Editorial, 28 June 2020, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-argument-is-tan-making-here-about-language-2353688. Find examples of peopleincluding Tan herselftreating her mother disrespectfully. In Tan's experience with the SATs, it was suggested that Tan's strengths lie within mathematics and science because of her higher scores on those exams; it didn't account for her struggle with understanding the format of the test questions. Focus your studying with a path. "9 [5 Tan elaborates this idea by scrutinizing her mother's language, her own use of English and society's response to different people's English usage. This text is a great starting point for discussions on culture, language and more. Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan Comprehension 1. 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. Latest answer posted October 28, 2019 at 10:43:03 PM, Latest answer posted May 19, 2020 at 7:56:33 PM, Latest answer posted November 08, 2020 at 3:49:32 AM. Where "mother tongue" usually refers euphemistically to someone's first language, here it refers to Amy's mother's second language: the English that Amy is familiar with her using, literally her mother's tongue. M.A. "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. How is Amy Tan's use of the phrase "mother tongue" ambiguous? The mother tongue shapes. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience, (para. Each story holds a key to understanding her main argument points. She says even her husband started speaking this kind of English together and that it has come to represent intimacy. b. eruption The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. Write the correct word in the space next to given definition. What is the context of Mother Tongue? Why? Tan talks about growing up with different forms of English and how that affected both her childhood and adult life. 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. 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. Amy's mother refused to leave the office until someone called her daughter. 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. 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. The difference between them not only lies in how they sound when spoken, but which one you speak can impact how others treat and perceive you. 2. 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. Life Span 4 . Psst 98% of Kibin users report better grades! Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. Because there are quite a few different tones in this short story, they transition from one to the other. Many of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club, such as Betty St. Clair in The Voice from the Wall, feel isolated from those around them, never at home in America, and hyper-aware of their outsider status, despite becoming legal permanent citizens in the country. Tan is making the argument in "Mother Tongue" that she became a better writer when she began to use both the types of English she spoke to write books her mother could understand. Though Mother Tongue is a very short narrative, its rich in content. According to Tan, why are so many Asian Americans encouraged to study math and science in college? Her mother attends her lectures. 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. Near the beginning of Mother Tongue, Tan says, I am fascinated by language in daily life. 1 0 obj What strategies does she use to make this argument? In the following sentence, underline each misspelled or misused word and write the correct spelling or word above the incorrect word. Discuss the way stereotypes or bias affect how we see ourselves and others. A person's "mother tongue" is usually considered to be their first language, but in this story, it refers to her "mother's tongue," or the version of English that her mother speaks. And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, "Why he don't send me check, already two weeks late. She began writing fiction in 1985, and after several false starts trying to find her own style and idiom, she began to write with her mother in mind as the ideal reader for her stories. 5. Get started for free! In this respect, if the parable Feathers from a Thousand Li Away acts as preface to the novel, Mother Tongue, in effect, acts as a kind of postscript. In "Mother Tongue," do you think that Tan and her mother have a close relationship? Tan highlights this dichotomy when she writes about giving her speech, saying the proper English words that she was using felt strange to say when her mother was in the room. Tan notes the difficulty of finding a term to describe the style of English her mother, as a Chinese immigrant to the United States, speaks. Here is the text: http://www.umsl.edu/~alexanderjm/Mother%20Tongue%20by%20Tan.pdfSupport me by buying mugs, t-shirts, notebooks and more! Multiple-choice 30 seconds 1 pt Where was the author born? So you'll have some idea of what this family talk I heard sounds like, I'11 quote what my mother said during a recent conversation which I videotaped and then transcribed. /CA 1.0 It has always bothered me that I can think of no other way to describe it other than "broken," as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. ______ to influence. Cite the text as needed to clarify and support your response. In directly quoting her mother, Tan is able to demonstrate her mother's speech patterns in text form. Tan talks about a few different types of English and in what situations she uses them, but each English form symbolizes something different to her. Tan notes in paragraph 21 that she thinks of her mother as her audience when she writes stories. In "Mother Tongue" why does Tan include her mother's story about the political gangster in Shanghai? What organizational pattern does Tan use in "Mother Tongue," and how does she control her tone? [/Pattern /DeviceRGB] How did Tans teachers identify her when she was in high school? Give at least three details from the essay to support your opinion. Fortunately, there are several different literary devices you can concentrate on for your literary analysis. Illustrate your observations with examples from Tan's essay, your own experience, or others you know. It is the simple difference between theory and practice. 15)? How do they further her argument? Identify them and describe their effect. On what were these descriptions and perceptions based according to paragraphs 15-16 of "Mother Tongue"? What is the author's purpose, style, and tone in the story? Find examples of peopleincluding Tan herselftreating her mother. An overarching theme of Tans novel is mothers emigrating to America in the hope that their daughters will have better lives than they did. ACCTG 205: CH 1 Vocabulary. This English is expressive, grammatically distant from proper forms, hard to understand for some native English speakers, and perfectly comfortable to Amy. 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/ Like other children of immigrants to America, the perceptions of her language abilities almost limited her career path in math or science, yet Tan eventually realized her own American Dream of becoming a full-time writer.

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