Rhetoricl Response:Mother Tongue

In the narrative essay,"Mother Tongue",(1990), the author, Amy Tan defines what "mother tongue" is to her in her own words and the effects it has had on her, based off of hearing her mother's English. Tan explains her reasoning by providing personal stories about her mother and how her "broken English" had so many cons, Tan had to help her numerous times. The purpose of this narrative essay is to showcase that even though you may be surrounded by "broken English", that's not what defines you and there are ways to work with it and around it. The audience of this essay would be anybody who has a different language other than English as their primary language.

Reading this narrative essay gave us insight on how the English language can be difficult to learn and speak to other nationalities trying to learn it. Being that English is all of our first language we, cant fully relate to how Amy Tan feels, nor her mother. But we can all say that we've seen or experienced first hand, communicating with someone with "broken language", and being confused and maybe sometimes frustrated because we don't understand what they are asking for or want. This essay has opened our minds up to now being able to understand both sides of the situation. Although we know the English language and they do not know it as well, but their trying as best as they can to communicate, be patient with them and try to help them because if the tables were turned, we wouldn't want them to treat us less than we are. And most of all we would want help too.

Tan's narrative essay is more effective and realistic when she goes into depth of the story about her mother and the CAT scan. "My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment.......a month ago." (page 158), in this paragraph she goes on and describes how the doctors lost the CAT scan and showed no interest in trying to find it until Tan had to come up there and speak the English language more clearly for her mother. Tan turned the effect of her mother's tongue as a positive effect by stating that "Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing , I had succeeded where it ............ her verdict: "So easy to Read." Tan majored in English and wrote fiction to prove to others that, she may grew up around "broken English" and spoke it, she can write as well, and so well that considering her mother's English, she is still able to read it.

Comments

The Fault in Our Stars: Chapter One Insight

Author, John Green’s fictional writing, “The Fault in Our Stars” (2012) suggests that every living individual should live their life the best that they can, while given the opportunity. The author develops his story by chronologically delivering these events. The purpose is to give you a visual of someone else’s living situation, in order to encourage you to appreciate yours. Green’s message is meant for everyone, as a bit of motivation. While reading the first chapter, we as group liked how the author, John Green, portrays each character and their personalities. The main character, Hazel Grace, and the other character, Augustus Waters, have different personalities and that's what draws them together. Having that chemistry between the two of them makes a major statement at the end of chapter one. Hazel went from being used to her cancer and the same routine, to seeing something else worth her attention a...

Rhetorical Response: How I learned to Read and Write

In the autobiography, " How I Learned to Read and Write " (1845), the author, Fredrick Douglas, describes his journey on learning how to read and write. Douglas explains, starting from the beginning of learning to read to learning to write the alphabet. Douglas emphasizes his determination to learn how to read and write in order to show the importance of literacy . Douglas shares his personal experience, with the audience target being African Americans and Caucasian readers. This reading made us feel extreme gratitude towards our race and our culture. During the time, while Douglas was a slave, African Americans learning to read and write was looked down upon. Slave owners wanted to keep the slaves physically strong, but mentally weak. The fact that Douglas was willing to take such a risk to learn something shows his determination and compassion. Like our group member's grandfather, in like manner, who left home at the age ...

Rhetorical Response: Talking in Color: Collisions in Culture

Tiffany Hendrickson’s narrative essay, “Talking in Color: Collision of Cultures” (2013), explores the idea that a person’s voice supposedly attaches them to one race. The author supports her story by supplying real life events that she experienced while growing up and delivering them as they happened. Hendrickson’s purpose is to bring awareness to the world, to decrease the amount of negative judgment that is put out towards people every day, because of the way they speak. The intended audience is for people in need of a boost of confidence, and people who find themselves judging others. After reading the text, we can agree with how the author, Tiffany Hendrickson, feels about code switching. There has definitely been times were we felt we had to code switch. Sometimes it can be simple as having a conversation with friends to having a conversation with our professor. In those cases it doesn't seem uncomfort...

English 1101

Search This Blog