Response To Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

            I enjoyed reading Mother Tongue by Amy Tan. I thought by just reading the first paragraph that I was able to make a strong connection with Amy Tan and her essay. .
             Throughout most of my life, my great grandparents were around. Both of them were right off the boat from Sicily, Italy. You could say they didn't have the best English. But, my family and I were able to understand their language almost perfectly. It was a language in which we had grown up around and became accustomed too. Their language could be described as "broken" English. They always had trouble going places, and often got frustrated when they didn't receive the same service that Americans did. They would find themselves asking their children or other family members to speak for them in public, make phone calls, and translate certain phrases and words for them. My grandmother told me that she felt as though while she and her siblings were in school, they were looked down upon because their parents couldn't speak proper English. Even though Amy Tan and her mother are of Asian decent, I was able to find some common similarities between both of our families. .
             Amy Tan quotes, "Her language as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world." Amy Tan is simply saying that because of her mothers language barriers she was able to form who she is today. She was able to see the ignorance in some people, and the patience and kindness in others. She was able to see how some people formed a prejudice against her mother and herself even though they did not speak the English language as accurately as other Americans did. .
             I can easily sympathize with Amy Tan because my great grandparents felt as though they were discriminated on because of their Italian background. They felt as though in a lot of circumstances they were not treated equally.