Amy Tan argues there are often different versions of the same language such as the English we speak in work settings and the English we speak with family members like parents and spouses. Amy Tan argues that one’s intelligence is often measured by one’s oral language skills but that is a mistake as her mother’s case proves. Not only her mother understands what she reads in English but also listens to financial broadcasts such as Wall Street Week.
For the sake of reference, Amy calls her mother’s English ‘broken English’ but she regrets titles like that because these titles imply lack of imagination and limited abilities on the part of the speaker. She adds that these biased perceptions actually impose costs on those with ‘broken English’. She describes how her mother was not taken seriously by the hospital or even her stockbroker but when Amy called the hospital, her perfect English resulted in more courteous response.
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Amy hypothesizes that ‘broken English’ in the family can limit access to opportunities for one as families have great influence on a child’s language skills. She speculates this may be the reason why there are so few Asian Americans in literature and so many in sciences as the teachers encourage the students to choose majors on the basis of their grades. Amy informs that her mother serves as the inspiration for her works because she wants to capture her mother’s true imagination. She adds that she doesn’t care for critics’ reviews of her works for as long as her mother understands and approves them.
