The term “mother tongue” is used in reference to how her mother speaks English. Some may consider her English to be broken, but to Tan, it seems perfectly fine. I think her mother speaks in the order of how the words are supposed to go in when she speaks in Chinese. For example, in Spanish, if you were to say cold water, you say water first, and then its adjective, cold. It’s something I’ve experienced with my own mother as well. Her native tongue is Spanish. She often comes to me asking the correct way to use a particular word or how to say certain words and how to use them. I relate to many things that were said in this essay because my mom doesn’t speak good English either. I tend to do many things for my mom because of how limited her English is, but I can’t relate to the text to being ashamed of my mom for her limited English. I could never be ashamed of her not expressing herself perfectly in a language she didn’t grow up learning. I think Tan uses mothers tongue as her title is. After all, this essay is just describing the difficulties of her mother’s limited English yet. Tan understands her mother. It also makes her reflect on how there is a whole generation of first-gen Asian Americans who don’t do well in English. Because what they practice with their parents can be either a mix of English with their native tongue or simply “broken English” because it’s beneficial for their parents to practice it.