Rhetorical Analysis of “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

In the personal essay, “Mother Tongue” (Autumn 1990), Chinese-American author, Amy Tan, illustrates how broken English can cause inequality and restrictions on other people due to society’s view on language and grammar. She supports her claim with personal experiences she has gained through her livelihood and quotes of the “Broken” English that she and her mother use. Amy Tan’s mother was a Chinese immigrant so her English wasn’t that good, thus resulting in unfair treatment in service places. At first, Tan was ashamed of the way her mother spoke, but overtime, she realizes she should embrace it because it is part of who she is. With this being said, Tan uses this personal essay to inform readers to not feel embarrassed of their background or how differently they speak from other people. She is also communicating to not judge others for the way they speak either. 

“I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others.” (Tan 1) Tan begins her narrative stating she is not a scholar of English or literature, which is appealing to pathos. This evokes empathy; it eases the reader into thinking she is not superior when it comes to language and she is not going to lecture them. It also creates a more personal tone for the essay overall. She then recalls a memory of when she realized her usage of different languages. Tan was giving a talk to a large group of people and saw her mother in the room. This moment in time leads her to recant her past, present and future experiences about her different Englishes. 

Moreover, Tan gives an example of the day-to-day English she uses with her mother which gives the reader an understanding of the “broken” English she talks about. Directly after, Tan states, “ She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week… Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue.” (Tan 1) Her mother reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, and reads all of Shirley MacLaine’s books with ease, yet some people still cannot understand her. However, to Tan, it is perfect. Appealing to pathos once again, this creates a tone of pride and confidence that Tan wants the reader to feel so they can be reassured about their differences. Tan then summarizes a childhood experience of her translating her mother’s English into Standard American English when she had to complain at a stockbroker. “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.’” Building Tan’s pathos, this grants her readers that have been in a similar situation familiarity and empathy. Most children, of parents who speak foreign languages, share the experience of having to communicate in English to other people for their parents. It also allows the reader to see how easy it is to comprehend her mother’s English. Tan does this to support her argument of not judging other people for the way they speak. 

Furthermore, Tan recalls another experience of when a doctor lost her mother’s CAT scan but was given the utmost apologies when Tan had called. “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.” (Tan 1) This illustrates one of her purposes for writing this essay: to not judge others for how differently they speak from you. Tan appeals to pathos once more to evoke sadness and sympathy from the readers, thus making them not want to criticize the way anyone speaks. “But I have noticed in surveys — in fact, just last week — that Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or ‘limited.’ And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.” (Tan 1) In this quote, Tan introduces an appeal to logos, a different approach considering her marathon of pathos, which creates a foundation of reason for what she states next. She found that Asian-Americans do better on math achievement tests than English and believes it is because they also come from a home of “broken” English and/or their teachers steered them away from english. This gives the readers a logical reason as to why English isn’t as prominent as math and science for people that come from bilingual or multilingual homes. To conclude the text, Tan states she will write using all the Englishes she grew up with: the English she spoke to her mother, the English she used with her, her translation of her mother’s Chinese, and what she imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English. (Tan 1)  Tan appeals to pathos by declaring that she will use all of her Englishes. This evokes a feeling of pride in the reader, reassuring them to embrace the way they talk and speak although it may be different. 

All in all, Amy Tan illustrates how broken English can cause inequality and restrictions on other people due to society’s view on language and grammar. She creates two main arguments: you should not be ashamed of your background or the way you talk and you should not judge others for their way of communication either. Tan stresses these arguments mainly by sharing anecdotes and statistics, utilizing pathos and logos. In the beginning, she was ashamed of her mother’s English but reframes her thinking throughout the personal essay, showing the reader to embrace their differences from society. “Mother Tongue” is significant because it effectively deconstructs the ideas of Standard Language Ideology, which is defined as a bias toward an idealized spoken language which is imposed and maintained by dominant institutions. It guides readers to feel confident with their different ways of language and to not judge others for it as well. The rhetorical approaches that Tan uses to get her arguments across to her audience allows for a more enjoyable read and holds a larger effect for understanding. This assignment walked me through the reasons for why an author might word or write a certain way. Rhetorical analysis allows for readers to catch details to build one main argument claimed by an author. 

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The Threepenny Review, no. 43, 1990, pp. 7–8. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4383908. Accessed 6 Oct. 2020.

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