Question

1. How does the idea of Tan’s reconciliation with her mother’s informal English develop over the course of chunk 1?

Answer 1

Answer :

In the story "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan, Amy struggles with the idea of code-switching which loosely means using different forms and dialects of English language in different circumstances.

During her growing up years, Amy struggled with the concept of code switching. She feels that she is in two language zones - one is the simple, unclear and broken language of her mother and the other is the more sophisticated use of the language that she learns at school. At times, she is embarrassed of her mother's spoken English, when her friends cannot understand what she wants to convey to them. Amy does not realize that her mother is really proficient in reading the language as she could read many books in English. Her mother only lacks in speaking proficiency as English is not her native language.

Slowly, Amy starts realizing the merits of growing up in an immigrant family and starts appreciating the cultures and traditions of her two worlds.