Amy Tan elaborates on her experiences with languages and becoming an Asian writer in her essay, “Mother Tongue”. A language is a form of expressing yourself, sharing ideas or beliefs, and is part of who you are. Amy Tan titles this essay “Mother Tongue” because of how she grew to learn to accept her mother’s imperfect English. Even though not everyone could understand what her mother was trying to say at times, she could. Amy Tan looked at it as a way for her mother to express herself and created a strong connection with her mother’s form of English. We learned about her experiences as a child growing up with a mother who did not speak perfect English. I myself was one of those children who had to speak on behalf of my Spanish mother. I learned at a very young age how to speak to adults, how to translate words from Spanish to English quickly, and how to understand what message my mother was trying to send. Just like Tan, I saw how people discriminated against my mother because of her struggles with speaking English. When I was very young I saw retail workers, government officials, nurses, doctors, etc, all stray away from helping my mother simply because they did not want to deal with trying to understand what she was saying. Today, I help my mother out with everything because I know how much she struggles with the language barrier. Even if no one she talks to in English comprehends what she is saying, I understand her imperfect English perfectly.

In Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue”, she walks us through her journey as an Asian woman in literature. Growing up, she always noticed the differences between the way she spoke English and the way her mom did. A language is a form of communication and a way to express yourself and sometimes the language barrier between one another may hinder how someone receives the message. Unfortunately, in the society we live in today, people will judge, and people will look down on you for many reasons. Thus, Tan finds it challenging being raised by a parent who can only speak “limited English”. She titled the essay “Mother Tongue” to show us that with a mother who cannot speak the best English, her English and the way she speaks had been influenced as well. Mother tongue in itself means the language a child starts hearing after birth and becomes a part of who they are. Tan’s moral of the essay is that there is nothing wrong with knowing limited English, her mother’s English wasn’t broken, everyone just has their own way of expressing themselves. Now as a writer she writes in the way her mom speaks and instead of feeling ashamed she is embracing it.

As a child of Chinese immigrants myself, I have once been in Tan’s shoes. Just like Tan, I have always been very aware of my reputation and how I am being seen in the public’s eye. I grew up translating letters in the mail, translating to government officials, and spoke for my mom because I didn’t want others to see that she was struggling with English. I started to learn lots of sophisticated English words, and phrases, and American ways of greeting people just so we wouldn’t get judged. Sometimes even to this day, I feel like I try so hard trying to impress others and caring so much for the reputation that I don’t see my parent’s perspective, it’s not that they want to know limited english but they are trying.

     The relationship between language and identity can be that language can determine someone’s identity such as their nationality. The term mother tongue can mean the first language someone learns at an early age. Amy Tan uses this as her title because the essay talks about how she and her mother speak a different form of English. What stood out to me was how very few Asian Americans would be enrolled in creative writing programs as to how many go into other career paths such as engineering. This can be an example of how for other Asian Americans English wasn’t really spoken as well either in their homes. Something else that stood out to me could be the situation where the narrator had to pretend to be her mother and make calls to complain to the people who had been rude to her. This stood out to me because I find It normal for parents who don’t know English as a primary language to have their children talk for them, but I didn’t think they would have their children call to complain to people who have been rude. I personally have experienced this before. Growing up my parents didn’t really speak much English and never really tried learning it since in New York most people also know Spanish. Since they didn’t really try learning it whenever they had to take me to appointments, I would have to translate the documents to them or when we went to fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s everyone would tell me what they want, and I would go up to the cashier and read off the list because they wouldn’t be able to understand my parents broken English. That is why the term mother tongue is used in the title and how it connects to my personal experience.

After reading “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones, something that I noticed about the text is how well the author uses his choice of wording making the readers feel like it’s their first day of Elementary school. on the first alinea of the first paragraph. The Narrator said something on the lines of “long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother”. This shows  that the daughter is foreshadowing a major event that happened that made her feel ashamed of her mother. While i continued reading the story i discovered some reasons why she might be ashamed of her mother. Her mother  saiud ”I want her to go here,” 5 my mother says. ”she tried to get her daughter to a better school which was near their church where they lived. They eventually went to the school they were supposed to go and had to sign an form she discovered that her mom couldn’t read. ‘can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write, and I’m askin you to help me.” which really resingnated to me because i usualy translate things to my family when they need help. In conclusion The mother tries to provide her daughter with access to good education while even though she wasn’t able to do.

My first impression after reading “The First Day,” by Edward P Jones is how similar we are to one another. Most of us can relate to how the mother is treating her daughter in this story. She’s being kind and soft with her daughter and also went out of her way to try and get the best for her daughter. This is especially relatable when we’re younger. After noticing the relationship between the daughter and the mother, I was surprised when the narrator wrote, “long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother.” At the beginning of the text, because of how caring her mother is. Another quote from the writing that stuck out to me is, “..the last present my father gave her before he disappeared into memory.” This made a strong impression on me because I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to her father. Did he pass? Are the parents separated? Even though these questions made me want to keep reading, I quickly realized the father is pretty irrelevant in this story. 

Hello everyone! My name is Stefany. My pronouns are she/her. I was born and raised in NYC. I live with my four siblings, two parents, and one cat. It can be overwhelming at times, living with so many people, but it’s fun too. I used to live in Manhattan when I was little. That’s where I spend most of my time because I have always attended school there, but I live in Brooklyn. Even though I have spent my whole life commuting to school by train, I still manage to get lost on the subway. Both of my parents are from Ecuador, making me Ecuadorian as well. I luckily get to visit the country often. I enjoy going there because of the beautiful nature, architecture, and culture and of course, getting to see a lot of my family that I don’t get to see in the states. I plan on studying abroad there if COVID gets any better. 

I chose a picture I took while being at a concert with my best friend. I love going to concerts because the energy is always unmatchable. I have seen Ariana Grande twice and Bryson Tiller. I hope I can go to more in the future because music is one of my passions. I love to sing and listen to music whenever and wherever. Music has definitely helped me throughout my life. Some of my favorite artists and bands are Mac Miller, TXT, Bad Bunny, Enhypen, Steve Lacy, and many, many more. I also love art. In my free time, I draw, paint, make jewelry, and crochet. I also like watching shows on Netflix. My favorites shows are Money Heist (Casa de Papel), Elite, Shameless, and New Girl. I will be majoring in psychology. So while attending Baruch, I plan on focusing and succeeding in my studies and meet new people on the way. 

While reading “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones, some vivid words left a considerable impression on me. In the first paragraph, the author tries to paint this picture in which she is getting ready for school with the help of her mother. He uses words like “my nose fills with the faint smell of Dixie Peach hair grease” that describe her situation distinctly. The choice of words make it effortlessly easy to visualize what is going on.  However, I do feel that despite the author trying his best to make the story descriptive, he has also wrote the story in a way where little to no emotion exists. There are instances where the story seem very straightforward, monotone and bleak. The situation the story portrays, a first day of school experience, is also very relatable. Your first day of school is usually easier to recall, whether it was a positive or negative experience, and I feel like that ties up with the story effectively because it has been described in a similar, detailed way.

Upon reading “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones, what stood out to me was his descriptiveness in the setting. The author made me feel like it was my first day with him especially when he described his way to elementary school. Also, the author used certain words so you can understand how the mother feels at certain moments. When the narrator states” we go into the hall, where my mother kneels down to me. Her lips are quivering. I’ll be back to pick you up at twelve o’clock. I don’t want you to go nowhere”. This can illustrate the nervousness the mother had and the relationship with her child. Throughout this whole story, the author used connotative diction to express emotion and illustrate the environment which made the build-up into the elementary. He also used a lot of imagery especially at the start to make the anticipation of going to school even better.

Can one be ashamed of their own mother? The narrator says a very intriguing line that i’m pretty sure had most of us in like a shock and that line was “long before i learned to be ashamed of my mother” , this made me stop for a second and think “can someone actually be ashamed of their mother?” because i know i can’t, yes our parents can sometimes do things that we might not like but at the end of the day they our parents and they’re there for us at all time. This made me want to learn more about the mother because i wondered what must’ve caused the  narrator to say something like this. Especially since the narrator included this sentence in the very beginning, so it would make the readers curious and want to read more. After reading more i came to a conclusion that the mother wanted the best for their kid. For example when she says “you gonna go there and learn about the whole world” this comes to show that the mother just wanted her daughter to learn and have the opportunity of a good education. Which is what most parents want for their kids.

Something that really caught my eye was the amount of imagery that was being used. I found myself creating these images in my mind which helped me understand what was going on a lot better. I found the essay very intriguing because of how relatable the first day of school is. What stuck out to me was when she mentioned, “She has learned that money is the beginning and end of everything in this world, and when the woman finishes, my mother offers her fifty cents.” This had a really big impact because coming from a low-income family it made me resonate with her mother. On top of that, her mother mentions that she doesn’t know how to read or write, this made me feel sad in a way. I think that her daughter is taking her mother for granted. I believe that she should love and cherish her mother a lot more and be thankful because at least she has someone in her life who cares for her.