We were reading an essay earlier this week that was called Mother
Tongue by Amy Tan. This essay is about the author Amy Tan
speaking about her experiences and how she and her mother were
treated differently than others due to language barriers and
different culture. Amy was a fluent speaker of the English
language and was growing up under a Chinese mother in the
United States, who was considered to be speaking "broken" and
"fractured" English by many American citizens. Fractured and
broken english means that limited and poor speaking of the
language. Amy Tan focuses on how non native english speakers
are not being taken seriously, are being stereotyped, and
overlooked at all times by the native english speakers.
One of the few stories Amy Tan includes in her essay about the way she and her mom were treated; was when Amy and her mother were at the hospital in order to see the mother's CAT scan she had previously completed, but the hospital staff immediately stated to the mom and her daughter that they have lost and misplaced the CAT scan that was previously completed. The staff were also acting extremely rude as they showed no emotion and sympathy for the previous family members of this family (Amy's father and her brother) both died because of brain tumors. The staff members of the hospital wanted to basically get rid of the patient and were not taking her seriously. Amy's mother asked to re-schedule another appointment in order to complete another CAT scan as they were not given more information about the missing results. Suddenly, Amy (who speaks english fluently) spoke to the hospital about the lost scan in her fluent English accent. The hospital staff then claimed that they had somehow found the misplaced CAT scan, and Amy was treated nicely. This experience Amy reflects on in her Essay shows how tough and difficult it can be being a non native English speaker, and how people think differently of you.
In my opinion, people should not be judged because of their limited language skills. The hospital staff thought that Amy's
One of the few stories Amy Tan includes in her essay about the way she and her mom were treated; was when Amy and her mother were at the hospital in order to see the mother's CAT scan she had previously completed, but the hospital staff immediately stated to the mom and her daughter that they have lost and misplaced the CAT scan that was previously completed. The staff were also acting extremely rude as they showed no emotion and sympathy for the previous family members of this family (Amy's father and her brother) both died because of brain tumors. The staff members of the hospital wanted to basically get rid of the patient and were not taking her seriously. Amy's mother asked to re-schedule another appointment in order to complete another CAT scan as they were not given more information about the missing results. Suddenly, Amy (who speaks english fluently) spoke to the hospital about the lost scan in her fluent English accent. The hospital staff then claimed that they had somehow found the misplaced CAT scan, and Amy was treated nicely. This experience Amy reflects on in her Essay shows how tough and difficult it can be being a non native English speaker, and how people think differently of you.
In my opinion, people should not be judged because of their limited language skills. The hospital staff thought that Amy's
mother wasn't a smart person due to her limited English speaking
skills. This is completely incorrect. If you are not as good of a
speaker in a specific language, does not mean you are not a smart
and knowledgable person.
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