The Story of Amy Tan Essay Example for Free

The Story of Amy Tan Essay The story about Amy Tans mothers effort to converse in effective English with people in spite of her broken or fractured English is in fact very common. I think many immigrants face this problem. As they come from a different background their way of thinking results into different Englishes. America has the most number of Englishes of the world as you can find people from all over the world here. I have seen people who dont take other people seriously who speak Broken English or in a certain accent. People use different Englishes everywhere; Spanish people have Spanglish, which is a combination of Spanish and English, Indian people have Hinglish, which is combination of English with Hindi the native language of India and so on. English is a universal language it is spoken slightly different everywhere which causes people to have a tint of background in their English. Why shouldnt people have their own tint of background in their English? People from different countries have different culture, way of thinking and even accents which adds the tint of background in their English. There is no doubt English is going to be spoken differently around the world. English is not only spoken but also written in some cases differently around the world. Such as the word Color Asians and British would spell it as Colour. As a matter of fact, even the MS Word Spell Check has it highlighted it as this is an American Software and Americans dont spell it like that. The word Schedule is pronounced as Sheadule. If everyone was speaking the same English there wouldnt be any difference if you are from England, China or any other part of the world. Everyone would sound the same and would have the same ideology. The diversity in English is in fact a good thing it shows ones cultural background and adds uniqueness to every country. So its fine to have tint of background in your English. These tints in English develop different accents all over the world. Not only all over the world but also in America. There are different accents such as the people from Southern states have different accent than people from the Northern. Not matter the accent English is still communicable and can avoid language conflicts. Language conflicts occur when there is no common language of communication or in other words when there are people speaking different languages and not everyone is aware of each others language. My friends family is very secular it consists of Hindus, Muslims and Portuguese. There are about three different spoken languages. To avoid any language conflicts they use a common language such as English so that everyone can understand each other. There are some people who get affected by difference in English; they are usually students from other countries studying in American Schools. These students often struggle with grades in English in American Schools, which is due to different Englishes. Amy Tan talks about how she struggled with grades in English and got by easily in Math and Science. This is true in the case of Asians as they have natural inclination towards technical subjects. The worlds leading Electronic and IT companies are loaded with Asians due to their natural ability. Asians in American Schools are usually steered away from writing towards Math and Science, which is why there arent many Asians Americans representing American literature. Amy Tan was a victim of such steering towards math and science. Amy Tan was told by her former boss that English writing was not her best skill and she should hone her talents towards account management. But she took all of the disproving assumptions that people made of her in a rebellious way and she over came it and succeeded. Its very annoying when people judge you by your background. As in the case of Amy Tan having Chinese background she was steered towards math and science in spite of her liking towards English writing. My following story is similar in a sense that I was also judged by my background rather than my capabilities. I had just moved from India to Canada and was hit with some irrelevant judgments that people made of me due to my background. The first impression that I got from Canadians was that they werent aware that Indians were able to converse in fluent English as they can. I saw that people were trying to talk to me in a way that I would understand them as if I didnt know English. I immediately informed them I can very well converse in the same English that they speak. I was shocked due to peoples lack of knowledge about third world countries. Its just said that English is our second language, but as a matter of fact English was taught to us before than our own language. Although we lea rned our own language since birth, but we really started reading and writing our own language from grade 3. Whereas we started reading and writing English from Kindergarten level. My classmates in Canada used to ask me whether we do Computer Programming in our own language since English is not our first language to which I replied; Absolutely not, we use the same English as you do, it might be a little different the way we use it but its the same language. I was truly amazed by the lack of awareness that people have about countries where the first language is not English. I had to prove a point that people can be well acquainted with English even if their first language is not English. Like Amy Tan I didnt exactly have any kind of shame in my story, as she feels a sense of shame and pride in her story. She feels shame because of her mothers broken English and pride as its because of her she is a renowned writer; its because of her she became rebellious in her life, wanting to accomplish something, prove something! And she succeeded in her life she achieved what she wanted to achieve. Although, I did have some pride in my story as I managed to change lot of peoples opinion and made good friends for life and had one of the greatest time of my life in Canada. I would conclude by saying that although English is diversified around the world due to language attitudes, difference in accent, background, Englishes or even unawareness to some extent, Its still the most communicable or reachable language in the world. I feel English is more or less like cooking; the taste of the same food differs from region to region and every region adds its own flavor to it.