Journal Entry #1

I personally relate more to " Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan, because she describes how the English that she and her mom spoke at home or to each other was a broken English. It also shows how not everybody who speaks English speaks in the same way. Every body has their own accent or way of speaking it. I can relate to this story  because I personally know that, since I was not born here and mostly raised in the Dominican Republic my English comes off with an accent and some words I can not pronounce and that might make my English sound "broken". I believe that my English comes off like that because my first language is not English and since I mostly speak Spanish around the house, sometimes when I speak in English I first think in Spanish and that might affect how the language sounds. Also when she says that she used to make calls for her mom and pretend she was her mom because her mom didn't know how to defend herself or communicate too well through the phone or not be understood. When she mentions that, it reminds me when my mom asks me to make calls for her in English and pretend that is her talking.

Becoming literate helped Amy Tan better function in society, because she learned how to write better and by writing she became better. She grew and started developing her vocabulary and giving speeches and helping her mom. Becoming literate didn't just helped her help her mom but it also helped her defend her mom, from the people who didn't respect her mom because they could not understand her. Lastly I find that a lot of people can relate to this story because, there is a lot of people who feel the same way about their English or their parents English, and who do similar things for their parents, like Amy Tan.