MOTHER TONGUE 601

ASH
I am not a scholar of English or literature. 1 cannot give you
much more than personal opinions on the English language
Mother Tongue andits variations in this country or others.
I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who
has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily
life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power
AMY TAN
of language—the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image,
a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language. is the tool of my
trade. And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with.
Recently, I was made keenly awareof the different Englishes
I do use. I was giving a talk to a large group of people, the same
talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. The talk
Born in Oakland, California, in 1952, Amy Tan is a Chinese Ameri- was about my writing, my life, and my book, The Joy Luck Club,
can novelist, memoirist, and essayist best known for her 1985 nov- and it was going along well enough, until I remembered one
el The Joy Luck Club. After the death of her father and brother major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My
from brain tumors in 1966, Tan and her mother moved to Switzer- mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she
land, where she attended high school. She received a BA and an had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English
MA in English and linguistics from San Jose State University in I have never used with her. I was saying things like, “The inter-
San Jose, California. After completing her studies, Tan worked section of memory and imagination” and “Thereis an aspect of
as a language development consultant and freelance writer for myfiction that relates to thus-and-thus”—a speech filled with
corporations, before publishing The Joy Luck Club, which ex- carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly
plores the complex dynamic between Chinese women and their seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, con-
Chinese American daughters. In her essay “Mother Tongue,” Tan ditional phrases, forms of standard English that I had learned in
examines how her own mother, a native speaker of Chinese, has school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at
affected her relationship with the English language. home with my mother.
Just last week, as I was walking downthestreet with her,I
again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the
English I do use with her. We weretalking about the price of
new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: “Not
waste money that way.” My husband was with us as well, and he
didn’t notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why.
It’s because over the twenty years we've beentogetherI’ve often

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602 AMY TAN MOTHER TONGUE 603

used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he of my friends tell me they understand fifty percent of what
even uses it with me. It has become our language ofintimacy, a my mother says. Some say they understand eighty to ninety
different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language percent. Some say they understand noneofit, as if she were
I grew up with. speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is
So that you'll have someidea of whatthis family talk sounds perfectly clear, perfectly natural. l's my mother tongue. Her
like, Pll quote what my mothersaid during a conversationthat I language, as I hearit, is vivid, direct, full of observation and
videotaped and then transcribed. During this conversation, she imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw
was talking about a political gangster in Shanghai who had the things, expressed things, madesenseof the world.
same last name as her family’s, Du, and how in his early years Lately, I’ve been giving more thoughtto the kind of English
the gangster wanted to be adopted byher family, who were rich my mother speaks. Like others, 1 have described it to people
by comparison. Later, the gangster became more powerful, far as “broken”or “fractured” English. But I wince when say that.
richer than my mother’s family, and one day showed up at my It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to de-
mother’s wedding to pay his respects. Here's what she said in scribe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed
part: to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness.
“Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off-the- I’ve heard other terms used, “limited English,” for example. But
street kind. He is Du like Du Zong—but not Tsung-ming they seem just as bad, as if everythingis limited, including peo-
Island people. The local people call putong. The river east side, ple’s perceptionsof the limited-English speaker.
he belong to that side local people. That man want to ask Du 1 know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my
Zongfather take him in like become own family. Du Zong father mothers “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was
wasn't look down on him, but didnt take seriously, until that ashamedof her English. I believed that her English reflected the
man big like become a mafia. Now important person, very hard quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed
to inviting him. Chinese way, came only to show respect, dont them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect. And I had
stay for dinner. Respect for making big celebration, he shows plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people
up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social in departmentstores, at banks, and in restaurants did not take
life that way. If too important wont have to stay too long. He her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to
come to my wedding. | didn’t see, I heard it. I goneto boy’side, understand her, or even acted as if they did not hearher.
they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen.” My motherhas long realized the limitations of her English
You should know that my mother’s expressive command of as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on
English belies how much she actually understands. She reads the phone to pretend I wasshe. In this guise, I was forced to
the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily ask for information or even to complain andyell at people who
with her stockbroker, readsall of Shirley MacLaine’s books with had been rude to her. Onetimeit was a call to her stockbroker
ease—all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand. Yet some in New York. She had cashed out her small portfolio, and it just
 604 AMY TAN MOTHER TONGUE 605

so happened we were going to go to New York the next week, not leave until the doctor called her daughter. She wouldn't
ourfirst trip outside California. I had to get on the phone and budge. And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me,
say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This who spoke in perfect English—lo and behold—we had assur-
is Mrs. Tan.” ances the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference
My mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering
“Why he don’t send mecheck, already two weekslate. So mad my mother had gone through for a mostregrettable mistake.
he lie to me, losing me money.” I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting
Andthen I said in perfect English on the phone, “Yes, I’m my possibilities in life as well. Sociologists and linguists prob-
getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two ably will tell you that a person’s developing languageskills are
weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.” moreinfluenced bypeers that by family. But I do think that the
Then she began to talk more loudly. “What he want, I come language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant fami-
to New Yorktell him frontof his boss, you cheating me?” And lies which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the
I was trying to calm her down, makeherbe quiet, whiletelling language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results
the stockbroker, “I can’t tolerate any more excuses. If I don’t on achievementtests, IQ tests, and the SAT. While my English
receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to skills were never judged as poor, compared with math, English
your manager when I’m in New York next week.” And sure could not be considered my strong suit. In grade school I did
enough, the following week there we werein frontof this aston- moderately well, getting perhaps Bs, sometimes B-pluses, in
ished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, English and scoring perhapsin the sixtieth or seventieth per-
and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shoutingat his boss in centile on achievementtests. But those scores were not good
her impeccable broken English. enough to override the opinion that my true abilities lay in
We used a similar routine morerecently, for a situation that math and science, because in those areas I achieved A’s and
wasfar less humorous. My mother had goneto the hospital for scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher.
an appointmentto find out about a CAT scan she had had a This was understandable. Math is precise; there is only one
monthearlier. She said she had spoken very good English, her correct answer. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English
best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital staff did tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and
not apologize when they informed her they had lost the CAT personal experience. Those tests were constructed around
scan and she had comefor nothing. She said they did not seem items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as, “Even
to have any sympathy when shetold them she was anxious to though Tom was ______ Mary thought he was _____.” And
know the exact diagnosis, since both her husband and her son the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combi-
had both died of brain tumors. She said they would notgive her nations, for example, “Even though Tom wasshy, Mary thought
any more information until the next time and she would have he was charming:” with the grammatical structure “even
to make another appointmentfor that. So she said she would though” limiting the correct answer to some sort of semantic
606 AMY TAN
MOTHER TONGUE 607

opposites, so you wouldn’t get answerslike, “Even though Tom students, as a whole, do significantly better on math achieve-
was foolish, Mary thoughthe wasridiculous.” Well, according ment tests than in English tests. And this makes me think that
to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken
could have been and what Mary might have thoughtof him. So in the home might also be described as “broken”or “limited.”
I never did well ontests like that. And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them
The same was true with word analogies, pairs of words away from writing and into math and science, which is what
for which you were supposed to find somelogical, semantic happened to me.
relationship, for instance, “Sunset is to nightfall as is Fortunately, 1 happen to be rebellious and enjoy the
to” And here you would be presented with a list of challenge of disproving assumptions made about me. I became
four possible pairs, one of which showed the same kind of an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled
relationship: red is to stoplight, bus is to arrival, chills is to fever, as pre-med. I started writing nonfiction as a freelancer the
yawn is to boring: Well, I could never think that way. I knew week after I was told by my boss at the time that writing was
what the tests were asking, but 1 could not block out of my my worst skill and I should hone mytalents toward account
mind the images already created by the first pair, sunset is to management.
nightfall—and 1 would see a burst of colors against a darkening But it wasn’t until 1985 that I began to write fiction. Atfirst 20
sky, the moonrising, the lowering of a curtain ofstars. And all I wrote what I thoughtto be wittily crafted sentences, sentences
the other pairs of words—red, bus, stoplight, boring—just threw that would finally prove I had mastery over the English lan-
up a mass of confusing images, making it impossible for me to guage. Here’s an examplefrom thefirst draft of a story thatlater
see that saying “A sunset precedes nightfall” was as logical as madeits way into The Joy Luck Club, but without this line: “That
saying “A chill precedes a fever.” The only way I would have was my mental quandary in its nascentstate.” A terrible line,
gotten that answer right was to imagine an associative situa- which I can barely pronounce.
tion, such as my being disobedient and staying out past sunset, Fortunately, for reasons I won't get into today, I later decided
catching a chill at night, which turnedinto feverish pneumonia I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And
as punishment—which indeed did happen to me. the reader I decided on was my mother, because these were
I have been thinking aboutall this lately, about my moth- stories about mothers. So with this reader in mind—andinfact
ers English, about achievementtests. Because lately I’ve been she did read my early drafts—I began to write stories using
asked, as a writer, why there are not more Asian-Americans all the Englishes 1 grew up with: the English I spoke to my
represented in American literature. Why are there few Asian- mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as
Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so “simple”; the English she used with me, which for lack of a bet-
many Chinese students go into engineering! Well, these are ter term might be described as “broken”; my translation of her
broad sociological questions I can’t begin to answer. But I have Chinese, which could certainly be described as “watered down’:
noticed in surveys—infact, just last week—that Asian-American and what I imagined to be hertranslation of her Chinese if she
608 AMY TAN MOTHER TONGUE 609

could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for . Tan uses people's inclination to assume as a way of exploring
that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor the subject of identity. Find examples of people—including
a Chinese structure. I wanted to capture what languageability Tan herself-treating her mother disrespectfully. What
tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the assumptions are people making about Tan's mother in these
situations and why? Cite specific examples from the text to
rhythmsof her speech and the nature of her thoughts.
support and illustrate your observations.
Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing,
. What argument is Tan making here about language and its
I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother
connection to our identity? What strategies does she use to
finished reading my book and gave meherverdict: “So easy to
make this argument? What motivates her to make such an
read.” argument?

NAVIGATING THE WATERS: Reading Closely

SHARING THE DISCOVERIES: Discussion and Writing
1. What is Amy Tan’s primary identity according to what
. At one point, Tan writes about being embarrassed about
she says in paragraphs 1-3? Cite the text to support your
her mother. Discuss how and why parents’ identities and
response.
personalities are often a source of embarrassment or tension
2. Describe how others (those who do not know her intimately) when people are young. Illustrate your observations with
see Tan's mother versus how Tan describes her? Include examples from Tan's essay, your own experience, or others
details from the text to add substance to your description. you know.
3. How did Tan’s teachers identify her when she was in high Explore the idea, discussed her by Tan, of different
school? On what were these descriptions and perceptions “Englishes” and other forms of more intimate language we
based according to paragraphs 15-16? use with family, friends, coworkers, teachers, and loved ones.
4. Explain why Tan calls herself a rebel and howthis identity What is the nature of these different languages and how do
led to her becoming a writer. Cite the text to support and they affect our behavior or identity?
illustrate your explanations. Discuss the way stereotypes or bias affect how we see our-
selves and others. Include in your discussion examples and
observations from your own experience or Tan's text.

EXPLORING THE DEPTHS: Rhetorical Strategies and Structures

1. Explain the meaning of Tan’s title and howit relates to her
own identity as both a Chinese American, a daughter, and a CONTINUING THE JOURNEY: Media Extension
writer. Cite the text as needed to clarify and support your Watch Amy Tan discuss language on “NEA Big Reads: Meet
response. Amy Tan” on YouTube.