The message behind Amy Tan's article is that perfect, American-sounding English is important. Foreigners with 'broken' English will be discriminated against and assumed to be ignorant or stupid.
One example from Tan's article is when her mother was at the hospital. Her broken English made the doctors tell her they couldn't help her. Only when her perfect English-speaking daughter called did they respect this old foreign woman enough to give her the services she expected.
Amy Tan's article seemed to be more a complaint rather than an article with a true essay. She was raging in quiet, polite English against how the world just happens to be. She is angry about how intolerant America is in terms of foreign accents, language, and expressions.
I feel that America is very inviting to foreigners, this country wants foreigners to like visiting here. However, once they get serious, once they need something besides how to get to the hotel or where a museum is, Americans can get incredibly ignorant and judgmental. They will assume they do not know anything because they can use English in a native sounding way. This is the basic message of Tan's article and it is really not convincing me of anything except that she is whining.
I agree with her thesis, and she supports it well, but her attitude is less logical and more passionate in a biased, emotional way that undermines the point of her paper.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ah! The comment that I could not wait to post. I really am trying to understand where you think that Amy is whining. I would be appreciated if you would explain it to me. I would like to understand where you are coming from. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteand back to the debate!!! like Stiarx, I'm also trying to understand why you think Amy is whining. I would really like to hear your side of the debate. I disagree with your comment but before I jump to conclusion I would like for you to explain why!
ReplyDeleteOne major misunderstanding on my part , I took this article to be a full on essay with a thesis. I saw no thesis. I saw nothing being proven. What I instead saw was a story of hardships in what I EXPECTED to be a emotionless, fact-driven piece.
ReplyDeleteI UNDERSTAND her position, and yes, it is a cultural mindset that English skills are more important than respect and the core of the message. This is the unfortunate situation we are in.
However, I do feel that improving your English is important, just because you can make yourself sort of understood is not an excuse to stop developing. Rather than continuing with learning English, her mother has just stopped at Engrish. That's why I used the word 'complain'. She had a large part of her whole life to improve (And she lived in America, where English is EVERYWHERE), but she didn't.
I think it was her responsibility. Others may feel that it is society's fault or that the message 100% supersedes the language, which I don't believe. The message is important, but the language is to be respected. Others still may feel that she did not have oppurtunities to improve, this may be so.
I would like to put in my example, I am learning ASL. I started over a year ago. My ASL grammar is broken and I use English word structure most of the time. I hope to be very good or even fluent by the time I graduate, I have a RESPONSIBILITY. Language is part of culture and if you want to be a part of a culture, you must make an effort to learn the language. You can't just stand on the sidelines and learn some basic stuff.
Yes, I can relate to the story, Yes, I have been in similar situations, Yes, I understand what it's like to use a language 'brokenly', but I feel that using a language without being part of the culture and thus trying to be fluent is like...
Ice in a cup of water that does not want to melt.