The Power of Language Essay Example

The Power of Language Essay Example The Power of Language Essay The Power of Language Essay The Power of Language Nowadays, more and more Chinese migrants, who use English as their second language, live and work in America. We can call them â€Å"bilingual† since they can speak both English and their mother tongueChinese. However, although many Chinese migrants can talk with others with very fluent English, many native speakers sometimes find it is hard to understand what these Chinese people have said. Some Chinese linguists who are in the union CMAU argue that with the age-old culture, Chinese have already formed their own style of expressing things. And this style may not be changed because it reflects their thoughts which have already formed by their unique culture. However, in Amy Tan’s personal essay â€Å"Mother Tongue†, the narrator used her own experience to show how her mother’s simple language influence her and changed her attitude to this Chinese-styled English from negative to positive in an unconscious way, and finally formed her identity of language in study and fiction writing. This kind of change in language may seem difficult for many people. But Amy Tan is different. To see something about her background, it can be found that although she is an American and received American-styled education, her parents were all born in China and received Chinese-styled education. That makes things different because she had double identities in her life: as a student in school and as the daughter in her family. And she spoke regular English with her classmates and simple English to her mother. Tan’s attitude toward her mother’s language was often negative when she was young. In fact, it is easy for readers to guess which kind of language Amy Tan preferred when she was young because she did not know anything about Benjie2 Chinese culture. The narrator shows her attitude to her mother’s language by saying â€Å"I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say† (28). The narrator then explains that her shame came from observing â€Å"the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did hear her† (29). The reason might seem superficial or even a little snobbish to readers. But it will easily be accepted because she was so young that she did not realize that her mother’s speech reflected the culture of Chinese. In the present, the narrator gives the readers some information about her first view of her mother’s language. This point causes the readers to think how her view is changed, and also begin her process of her language identity’s formation. Everything which changes must have a cause. And the change of Amy Tan’s view of her mother’s language is not an exception. The narrator used two stories to show how this kind of identity in language was formed. The one is her mother â€Å"used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she† (29). And in the process of pretending to be her mother on the phone, Amy Tan had gradually formed her identity in language because she had to continuously translate her mother’s broken English into regular English. This may have had an impact on her thoughts because she had to think using her mother’s style of language in order to translate what her mother’s wanted done. Then the narrator tells another story about her and her mother’s experience in the hospital, which is â€Å"a similar routine† but gives readers a deeper impression about the process of how her dealing with her mother’s language changed the author’s view of language. And the narrator also indicates her mother’s character by describing her mother said â€Å"she wouldn’t budge† (29). When the doctors wouldn’t serve her as she wanted, in this case, Tan talks for her mother but doesn’t pretend to be her and gets easily what her mother couldn’t. The narrator does not say so but the reader gets the Benjie3 feeling that she felt that her mother was unfairly treated mainly because of her language. What is a shame here then is not her mother but the doctors’ actions. The fact that the narrator doesn’t explain shows how her change in attitude toward her mother’s speech from negative to more positive happened over time and mostly unconsciously. In fact, to show this unconscious change the narrator has already indicated details at the beginning of this essay. When she talked about a lecture which was given to both an ordinary audience and to her mother, she was â€Å"made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use† (27) She then says â€Å"The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered on major difference†(27) That is she was using the kind of English which â€Å"I have never used with her†(27). These details, especially her surprise, indicate that the author did not feel her attitude change about the difference in language between her mother and other people until the recent lecture. Thus, all her formation of her identity in language is not self-conscious. And all the reminiscence about her language identity formation was only after her awareness of the importance in her life of dealing with the different language she used between her and her mother. Until now, the narrator successfully narrates her gradual formed identity in language which was influenced by her mother without awareness. Different identity must have different effect on study or work. The narrator demonstrates this point of view by using her unique experience both in school and her career. In her view, there is a difference between her and other people in language skill development. Because she was born in an immigrant family, her language skills were more influenced by her family than her peers. From here, the narrator has already related her formed identity in language to her study. To provide evidence of what she says, she gives the experience of her tests in school. She says:â€Å"While my English skills were never judged as poor, compared to math, English could not be considered my strong suit†(29)This will cause readers to think why as a famous fiction writer, English is not the Benjie4 strong suit for Amy Tan’s school study? Why was she good at math? The narrator answers these questions by simple saying â€Å"Math is precise; there is only one correct answer† (30). From this statement, it is not hard to think about Amy Tan’s new formed identity- the simple but precise language which was passed on by her mother. Then the narrator takes two examples from the English tests to show the reason why she can’t do well in these abstract tests. Readers can easy find the reason by reading the narrator’s conclusion about a test situation with â€Å"Tom† and â€Å"Mary†: â€Å"according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him†(30). Also, from what the narrator says, we can also find some details about her altitude to this simple language, from â€Å"broken† to â€Å"precise†, that shows the author had already accepted this identity in language. In fact, as a writer Tam comes to reject the complicated and vogue and favor the simple. For saying something about the identity’s impact on the Amy Tan’s career, the narrator firstly quotes some questions which she was asked by others â€Å" Why there are not more Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering? †(30) The narrator didn’t answer the questions. Instead, she tells something about Chinese students’ performance in math achievement tests and English tests. In fact, the narrator wants to give space for readers to think, to ponder why this phenomenon happens. And it is easy for readers to relate this phenomenon to the narrator’s identity in language. That must be the most important thing the narrator wants to do: to show how powerful language is. It makes impacts on all parts of our life, no matter in study or work. Lately, the narrator illustrates how she changed her style of writing from â€Å"wittily crafted English† to â€Å"simple English†, and then she formed her unique writing style. At the end of the story, the narrator says â€Å"apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded† (31). From now, we can find that the Amy Tan’s identity in Benjie5 language has already changed. The altitude to her mother’s Chinese-styled English changed from â€Å"broken† to â€Å"simple†, then she felt â€Å"succeeded† by using her own simple language in writing fictions. Although Amy Tan is a fiction writer, her purpose to write this personal essay is not to do any literature research, just as she says â€Å"I am not a scholar of English or literature† and â€Å"I am someone who has always loved language† (27). Thus, it may be more easily to cause readers to think of the relationship between language and their identity because she used so many personal experiences which may be also occur in our daily. To think about the title of the story â€Å"mother tongue†, it will also cause readers to ponder what is Amy Tan’s real mother tongue? She was born in America and speaks English as native speaker, but her identity of her language, is gradual formed by her mother’s Chinese-styled English influence. Thus, the narrator gives something for readers to consider and to give answers. In a word, the role of language in Amy Tan’s identity must be significant. It gradually formed her precise thoughts in tests and simple writing style in her fictions. It causes readers to deeply think about if the â€Å"broken† language is really broken, and if this kind of language will also be used in their future life. And they may find the answer when they are greeting people using the also broken phrase â€Å"long time no see†. Work Cited Amy Tan. â€Å"Mother Tongue† Writing As Revision. Ed. EdthAlvarado and Barbara Cully. 2010. 27-31. Print