English In the United States - Free Essay Example

Mother tongue takes a firm hold on oners mind from the very beginning. In true sense it is intermingle with our lives and consciousness. In Mother Tongue Amy Tan, A chinese American novelist calls her motherrs English her mother tongue. Throughout the story Amy highlights the consequences she and her mother faced because of speaking a non-native variation of English which she referred to as broken and limited English. There are many people in our society like Amyrs mother who do not speak English as perfectly clear as people want. It is difficult to live abroad with the inability to speak English fluently and clearly. Mostly, people with different family and cultural background feel the necessity of speaking standard English perfectly at every step. The reason is because people have assumptions regarding other languages and it plays an unconscious role in limiting our ability to perceive the world. However, it is not necessary to strive to speak language as correctly as possible in order to communicate clearly and to show our intelligence because with non-standard English a person can still be successful in life. Generally language is the medium of communicating our ideas, thoughts and feelings to others, yet the language we grow up hearing can effect on our life path. In Mother Tongue, Tan highlighted an internal conflict she had with English in education because peoplers perception of her is based on her language use. This is shown when she said, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience(Tan, 1990, P.164). She emphasize that her achievement tests are being affected by the non-standard English language she grow up hearing because the test measure her ability in English rather than giving value to her creativity or imagination. Tanrs mother simple English helped her to understand the world in a different way which does not mean she is bad at English and she is unaware of what happening around her. But English tests judge our ability of understanding things that we imagine differently than they want us to do. This is important because every person have a different perspective of thinking and language does not effect on their knowledge of the world. Like Amy, I also think my language has affected my academic achievements because in SAT I also got higher score in math than English. I still remember one of the common dialogue I heard from my classmate, Damm! You got high score in math because you Asian. This highlights a stereotype that Amy and I faced because our way of understanding English affect on peoplers perception of us. These stereotype are not always true because definitely the reason of getting higher score in math is not the lack of standard language. It is because math is more of problem solving than critical thinking where we need more time to analyze the way we think, and standardized tests are not the best way of measuring our intelligence. This kind of racial stereotype or misconception made by others become obstacle in many students life. It constrict our aspirations and shape future goals. Peoples perception push us towards a field where we are already good at and where we do not have to worry about using perfe ct English. Although, Amy broke this assumption and stereotype by not choosing math related fields but by choosing creative field to represent her mothers broken tongue. The issue of stereotype greatly effects Amy Tanrs mother but it also influenced her as a writer. She grew up seeing external conflicts between her mom and other native English speakers, who mistreated her mother with attitudes because of her poor English. Her mother is being neglected in the society because people judge her as unintelligent and unimportant. Thus actually impersonated Amyrs stories which focus on the audience whose English is limited like her mother tongue. Amy highlights that she accomplish her goal of being a writer when her mother read her book and said, So easy to read(Tan, 1990, P.166). This is important because Amy shows empathy towards her mother by not using standard English that people expected. This is also a way of showing respect to her mothers broken English which is not only sufficient for family life but also sufficient for daily communication. Beyond peoplers perception, Amyrs mother tongue become a source of creativity that she find useful for her ow n writing. Her empathy and respect toward her mother prove that a non-standard English speaker can succeed in literature. In her literature she did not only show empathy and respect to her mother but also show it to other immigrants like my mom. My mom and Amyrs mom are related because they both want their daughter to pretend they are the one who is talking on phone. The reason they dont feel comfortable speaking in non-standard English is because they dont feel respected by others. Unlike Amy, I was always embarrassed of my English. I use to hesitate a lot while having a conversation with people on phone because I was still getting confused about proper grammar and sentence structure. That effected on my self-esteem because their English pronunciation and sentence structure is way better than mine. At a moment I realize that I felt more comfortable talking in English without worrying about what other people think. The reason I came to this realization is because I knew people actually understand my English. Itrs not perfect but it is sufficient for communication and understanding complicated stuff. Usually, English is a very tough language to become highly skilled but speaking English like a native is not essential to show our intelligence. Throughout the story, Tan illustrated how much she loves her mothers unique broken English which led her to success. In the United States, it is common that many immigrants family face false assumptions because of their linguistic capabilities. But it is important for everyone to avoid criticizing people who cannot speak a language correctly and fluently because they have their own unique way of expressing themself which is enough to be successful in life.

Poetry Analysis“Digging” - Free Essay Example

Poetry Analysisâ€Å"Digging† by Seamus Heaney Passion- Its definition, its pursuit, all revolves around our lives. When a person is passionate about something, he should do what he is passionate about and not what the society or friends tell you to do. With Passion comes a lot of hard-work and perseverance. The narrator in the poem is passionate about writing. This poem by Seamus Heaney talks about the loss of innocence, deals with the loss of childhood innocence and the following transitions into adulthood. In this poem, Like most of his other poems, like â€Å"Death of a Naturalist†, we are shown his admiration for his ancestors, his own distorted view of nature and why he became a writer. When you have to dig deep for the good stuff in digging, you have to dig deep for the good stuff for writing something well. It seems the author is suggesting that hard work is important, no matter what line of work you do. Just do it with passion. In this poem, Heaney seems to use his father’s and his grandfather’s digging into the homeland ground as a comparison to his writing and development of his poetry. Heaney’s father and grandfather use their shovels to work with the land, while Heaney uses his poem to work on his ideas to write poetry. The  narrative voice  in this poem is first person narrative throughout the poem. This is proven already in the first line, in the first stanza: â€Å"Between my finger and my thumb†. The  narrative voice  may very well be  Seamus Heaney  himself. Seamus mentions ’turf’ in the fifth stanza. Ireland is one of few countries left in Europe that still has turf. There is an obvious link to his country. The poem is written in  free verse. This form of  free verse  allows the poet a freedom for subtle rhythmic variety, for example using assonance, or making words look like they rhyme. The poems diction is concrete, sensual, and relatively simple and is shape d by the poets adept use of dialect, sound devices. The dominant image Digging functions as an analogy for the writing process. Digging into the past, into myth and history. This poem has eight stanzas containing two couplets. In addition, there is no consistent rhyme scheme, although it has some rhymes: â€Å"thumb† and â€Å"gun† (in the first two lines);  Ã¢â‚¬Å"sound†, â€Å"ground† and â€Å"down† (in the second stanza). Moreover, it is written in first person narrative; we can see that in the first line of the first stanza: â€Å"Between  my  finger and  my  thumb†. In addition, throughout the whole poem, there is a central extended metaphor of digging and roots, which shows how the poet, in his writing is expressing by this Imagery, â€Å"The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge. Related to the title, it is only when we have read the poem carefully when we realise that a ll the three generations are involved in digging: his grandfather dug turf, his father dug up potatoes, and he is digging up his memories and his innocence. So, the title is much appropriate,  because reading it we can guess more or less about what we are going to be told in the poem; at least we can guess that the poem deals with digging. As for the tenses used by Heaney: the poem begins in the present tense as Seamus Heaney describes seeing his elderly father straining among the flowerbeds, then it goes into the past tense when he remembers his father and grandfather at work. The last two stanzas return to the present, when Heaney realises that his work is to write. And the end, in the final line, however, it is in the future tense, to emphasise Seamus  Heaney’s  willpower and positivity â€Å"I’ll  dig†. | | | | | |