Mother Tongue

Tan’s essay on language made me look at language in a different perspective. As a child of parents who emigrated to United States from China she was able to see firsthand how difficult it can be for a grown adult to learn a new language. She has had to help her mother struggle through language barriers that she has to deal with on a daily basis. Tan’s mother spoke broke English and Tan often felt that when she was with her mother she too had to speak broken English, though in her writing and talking with peers she spoke properly the way she was taught in school. Tan writes the essay opening the eyes of her readers to see the complexity of language and how native speakers often take their own language for granted. She made me as a reader realize that language truly is a beautiful thing as it allows us to express to others who we are and that how we word or say things in our expression make a big difference.