Mother Tongue Personal Response

Crystal Stinson

Sharla Yates

English Composition

April 4th 2012

Personal Response to "Mother Tongue"

        Mother Tongue, the essay written by Amy Tan portrays her views from adolescence to adult hood, coming from an ethnic background and living in the American culture. She states that her mother is often treated poorly or misunderstood due to her inability to speak English clearly.  She tells stories of her mother’s need for her to communicate with people in order for them to take her seriously, even though her mother was fully capable of speaking English. On one hand she has the challenge of dealing with individuals who don’t respect or understand her mother due to her “broken” English. On the other hand she finds it difficult to break through the perception of her native background in the society that we live in today. (Page 2)

        In the essay Mother Tongue, Tan speaks of different times though out her life that she has had to deal with others and their perception of herself and her mother. Since she is from a Chinese background, some assumed that she should excel in areas like math and, or engineering. In my opinion, these are views that are often placed upon individuals that are not American. What we would call stereotyping.

        It reminded me of my last job, where I ran the phones and sold products to salons and spa’s. When I first started at this company, we would call out to a salon and send them a brochure of our information. If we had sold to them before they were an account, if we had not, then they were a lead.  Often times, the person on the other end of the line did not speak English. My supervisor simply told me skip these salons and to not bother with them, since no business would or could be generated.