Mother Tongue: The Different Types of English
'Mother Tongue' by Amy Tan explains the implications of speaking different types of English when applied to a real life situation. Amy Tan uses her own life story to express her opinion on this topic. Her family immigrated to New York from China, therefore she had an American education and became fluent in academic American English. Here is already one example of a type of English. Tan explains that her mother was known to speak "broken" English. But is there actually any such thing? Just before, I brought up the idea of American English. There is also British-English and Australian-English, plus more. They are all different variations of English, yet "broken" English is not a proper form of the language? This is the issue I will be discussing in this blog post.
I find that I can relate to Amy's story. I spent the first eleven years of my life living in Scotland. I was surrounded by my Scottish father, English mother, and then my sister, grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins from each side of the family. The place I lived speaks English, but of course there are variations of this English that has Scottish slang/dialect mixed in with this. For example, "Aye, I'm going tae go tae the shops tae get some messages. I dinnae ken what I need yet though." This means, "Yes, I'm going to go to the shops to get some shopping. I don't know what I need yet though." This is still English, just Scottish-English, a variation. However, then there is television. I grew up watching Disney Channel, where the majority of the shows were American-English. By watching this, I picked up the variations and was able to identity the fact that there are different types of English. Then I moved to Australia, where again I became to know what is known as Australian-English. By this age I already know American-English, English-English, Australian-English, and Scottish-English. This means that I had to use these different types of English in different situations. Just because a person does not speak a American or English-English, does not mean it is not English. Notice how I do not use the term "British-English". I feel like this term is too broad. Scotland is part of Britain, yet the form of English is different to the English in England.
Overall, my opinion is that "broken" English is still a form/variation of English. Amy's mother could still communicate, she still spoke English, just in a different form. The text says that people considered Amy's mother's English to be imperfect or incorrect, however there is no single form of English, therefore "broken" English cannot be assumed to be exactly that. People who speak American-English say British-English is incorrect and vise versa. It's all about being articulate, applying different language to (or depending on) different situations.
I find that I can relate to Amy's story. I spent the first eleven years of my life living in Scotland. I was surrounded by my Scottish father, English mother, and then my sister, grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins from each side of the family. The place I lived speaks English, but of course there are variations of this English that has Scottish slang/dialect mixed in with this. For example, "Aye, I'm going tae go tae the shops tae get some messages. I dinnae ken what I need yet though." This means, "Yes, I'm going to go to the shops to get some shopping. I don't know what I need yet though." This is still English, just Scottish-English, a variation. However, then there is television. I grew up watching Disney Channel, where the majority of the shows were American-English. By watching this, I picked up the variations and was able to identity the fact that there are different types of English. Then I moved to Australia, where again I became to know what is known as Australian-English. By this age I already know American-English, English-English, Australian-English, and Scottish-English. This means that I had to use these different types of English in different situations. Just because a person does not speak a American or English-English, does not mean it is not English. Notice how I do not use the term "British-English". I feel like this term is too broad. Scotland is part of Britain, yet the form of English is different to the English in England.
Overall, my opinion is that "broken" English is still a form/variation of English. Amy's mother could still communicate, she still spoke English, just in a different form. The text says that people considered Amy's mother's English to be imperfect or incorrect, however there is no single form of English, therefore "broken" English cannot be assumed to be exactly that. People who speak American-English say British-English is incorrect and vise versa. It's all about being articulate, applying different language to (or depending on) different situations.
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