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.