Mother Tongue

“Mother Tongue” Response Questions

1. What occasion caused Amy Tan to become “keenly aware of the different Englishes” she

used?

• Amy Tan became aware of the different ways in which she spoke at a talk to a group she had many times before. The difference occurred to her when she realized that her mother was in the group and it would be hard for her mother to understand what Amy was saying.

2. The expression used in Amy Tan’s title, “Mother Tongue,” is also used in paragraph seven.

What does this expression generally mean?  What does it seem to mean in this essay?

• The expression generally means the language that a child first learns.
• In this essay “mother tongue” refers to the way in which Amy’s mother communicates.

3. Tan uses dialogue throughout the essay…why do you think she does this?  What purpose does

it serve?  Which sentences of dialogue do you find particularly effective, and why?

• Amy uses dialogue to efficiently show how her mother actually communicates.
• The purpose that the dialogue serves is that it allows the readers to understand how a conversation with Amy’s mother would sound.
• I find the dialogue of Amy speaking to her mother very effective because it between it and the sentence she demonstrates from her speech you can understand the different ways in which Amy speaks English.

4. In what ways did outsiders (like bankers and waiters) make judgments of Tan’s mother

because of her language?  Do you think the judgments where deliberate or unconscious on their

part?  Explain.

• Outsiders negatively judged Amy’s mother because they thought that her thoughts were incomplete because of her “broken” English.
• Some of the judgments may have been unconscious but the individuals who choose to ignore her were deliberate because they did not want to work with her to determine an effective way to communicate.

5. Growing up, how was Tan’s perception of her mother influenced by the way she spoke?

• Amy first thought negatively of her mother because of her speech. She also thought that her mother had incomplete thoughts because of the way she spoke. She later learned that she could understand her mother perfectly and that her thoughts were complete she just couldn’t express them herself so Amy must do it for her.