Phase 2

Dylan Castellanos 4/5/22 CCNY F.C Rhetorical Analysis Essay Many people around the world speak a variety of different languages, many call The United States one of the most diverse countries in the world. When it comes to the English language, there are many different ways that people speak it. Some can be fluent and some can be a little misunderstood. In class we have talked about many ways that people speak English. In the text “Mother Tongue”, an author (Amy Tan) describes the many struggles that many people around the world have with speaking English. She also gives experiences that she has had in the past. She talks about how her having immigrant parents has an impact on how she speaks English. The story “Mother Tongue” explores the relationship that Amy Tan had with speaking the English language, her mother and writing. This book was published in 1990. She explains how there are many different types of English that people speak. Some of the types of forms she mentions were formal/academic, English she uses with her mother and the English she uses with her husband at home. Many are different and many have different tones. Tan explains how her mother has had an impact on her because she was always forced to know perfect English even though she was a native and didn’t know all that much about speaking English. Tan also mentions that her parents knew how to speak English that not many native americans knew, including her. One of her main arguments was that the way one speaks the English language does not determine how smart or how educated they are. Tan explains that her mom spoke a different English from the one they spoke at school. She described that her mom’s English was broken because she didn’t know another way to explain/describe it. This affected Tan because since her mom spoke a different English, this caused Tan to do poorly in school. As Tan grew older, she had realized that her mom’s English wasn’t broken, she realized that there were many different types of English that people spoke. At one point Tan had to stand up for her mom because other people would make fun of the way her mom spoke. Amy stated that she had felt regret about saying that her mothers English was “Broken”. There was one point where Amy had to translate for her mother because people wouldn’t understand what her mother was saying. People like myself can relate to this story a lot because my Grandma and Grandpa don’t really speak english that well, they came from Dominican Republic, so i often sometimes have to explain/translate, and that’s kind of what Tan went through. Tan has connected people with her story, many people have related to this in many personal ways and can relate with the different stories she has told. She urges people that it is never too late to follow your dreams and that they can do whatever they want as long as they put the work in. There are many ways to speak English, just because one sounds different from others doesn’t mean that it’s “broken” or “Wrong”.