Question

In what ways does the English that Tan’s mother speaks affect how people outside the Chinese American community think of her? What examples does Tan give to demonstrate this fact of her mother’s life?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

In "Mother Tongue", author Amy Tan discusses the many Englishes that somehow shaped her into becoming who she is. To do so, she takes time to explain how her mother's English affects the way people outside the Chinese-American community perceive her (the mother).

Amy's mother speaks a "broken" English. Even though her sentences make perfect sense, they do not follow grammar rules or possess every single particle or preposition normally used. Because of that, people seem to respect her less. Some even pretend they can't understand or hear her. For that reason, the responsibility to function as a translator between her mother and others often falls onto Amy's shoulders. She mentions a couple of examples when her own perfect English was the solution for such unfair situations. Once with her mother's stockbroker, once with the employees and doctor of a hospital, Amy was clearly more respected and taken seriously than her mother:

One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New  York. [...] I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice  that was not very convincing, "This is Mrs. Tan."

And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, "Why he don't send me check, already two  weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.

And then I said in perfect English, "Yes, I'm getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check  two weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived."

[...] And sure enough, the following week there we were in front of  this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan,  was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English.

We used a similar routine just five days ago, for a situation that was far less humorous. My mother had  gone to the hospital for an appointment, to find out about a benign brain tumor a CAT scan had revealed a  month ago. She said she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the  hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing. She  said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact  diagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors.[...] And when the doctor finally  called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English -- lo and behold -- we had assurances the CAT scan  would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering  my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake.