Not all people who speak the English language speak it in the same way. It is very rare to find two people who speak exactly the same English because there are many different forms of this language. This is the argument made by Amy Tan in her story “Mother Tongue”. Tan uses pathos to describe to her audience how, through her experiences with her mother and the Chinese language, she realized who she wanted to be and how she wanted to write. In “Mother Tongue,” Tan discusses the many ways the language he was taught has affected his life. Throughout the story, she describes her relationship with her mother, who speaks "broken" English, and how her perception of the language has changed because of her mother. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Whenever Tan was younger, she was always ashamed and embarrassed by the way her mother spoke, as it often sounded weird and many people being unfamiliar with her way of speaking made it very difficult to understand her . Tan described that whenever she and her mother went to a store or restaurant, they were not treated the same as someone who spoke “proper” English. She said people “didn't take her seriously, didn't do her any favors, pretended not to understand her, or even acted like they didn't hear her” (Tan 765). As a result, Tan had to pretend to be her mother and she had to call people to yell at them while her mother stood behind her and pushed her. Language created a barrier between Tan and her mother, but as Tan grew up, she eventually adopted this “fractured” English because it was a sense of belonging. She no longer saw an imperfection in her mother's language, but rather comfort, because she had become a part of her family. In the essay “Mother Tongue,” Tan discusses the power of language. She writes, “it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” (763). One of the main points of his story was that words are more than just words; sometimes you have to look behind them and read between the two to understand their true meaning. For example, his mother didn't speak perfect English, but the points and ideas she was trying to get across were really important. Amy Tan also felt that standardized tests cannot accurately determine a person's intelligence. She effectively makes her point using rhetorical devices such as: "I wanted to capture what language aptitude tests could never reveal: his intention, his passion, his imagery, the rhythms of his speech, and the nature of his thoughts” (Tan 768). . When she said that standardized tests cannot determine a person's true intelligence, she was trying to say that people have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence, and yet these standard tests can only measure one certain type of intelligence; so it's really a bit unfair, for lack of a better term. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Overall, the main idea of ​​Tan's story is to point out that just because someone cannot speak English perfectly does not in any way make them less intelligent than someone who was born in this country and understands and speaks English fluently. Tan has judged and been judged by her tongue, and seen her mother disrespected because of the way she speaks, but these..