Name: Rifat Sultana
English 11000-EC
Instructor: Noelle Marie Nagales

Researched Exploratory Essay

A language is a powerful tool that can either bring people together or set them apart from each other. Learning a new language isn’t easy. We use language to communicate with others and convey our
emotions. It has up and down moments but once learned that language I felt accomplished and had a lot of opportunities. The most challenging thing was I couldn’t speak English very well when I came to the
The UNITED STATES in 2019 with my family. It’s hard to imagine how I struggled with my new language. I have been learning to speak English for the past few years. Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” describes how
language has changed her life in so many ways. She describes how she struggled to learn English as a kid and finally overcome her challenges. I read a novel that is called “Girls in Translation” by Jean Kwok. I
love this novel and how this is allowed me to see my own story, with all its cruelty and kindness. I love how it invited me into the heart and mind of Kimberly Chang, who resonate with anyone who has sacrificed for a dream.

When I first started school, I really didn’t know any English. It was hard because none of the students knew what I was saying, and sometimes the teachers didn’t understand what I was saying. I was
ashamed to admit that I am not the brightest student anymore. I hardly understand any English. Sometimes I knew the answers in class, but I didn’t know how to explain them in American English. I thought everyone might be laughing at me then I kept quiet. I was put in those ELL classes where they teach you English. The room they would take us to was full of pictures to teach us English and teach us how to read and write. When I would go back to the regular class, I would have to try harder than the
other students. I would have to study more and harder with reading and writing if I wanted to be the same label as the other students. I was very uncomfortable sitting next to my classmates who were born here.
One day I went to my aunt’s house and my all cousins are talking in English. There was only one person which is me I couldn’t speak English. That moment was so embarrassing for me. Therefore, I wanted togain a wider range of vocabulary.

Amy Tan recognized immigrants’ problems with communication when writing the article “Mother Tongue” was published in The Threepenny Review In 1990. In her article, she describes the
English, she grew up as an immigrant and she assumed her mother’s “broken language”. She describes the different languages she uses, the one when she is having a conversation with her mother and the one uses when she begins to write, and also, she explains how she overcome the journey of learning English by using real-life examples. An example is she explained her mom would have her call to ask for information “The fact, people in different stores, at the bank, and at the restaurant did not take
her seriously did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretend not to understand her, or event act as if they did not hear her” This goes on Amy Tan uses her article “Mother Tongue “to explain
to the readers how her mother’s” broken language” affected her life and because of that people see her different.” Mother Tongue” is to persuade people so respect people who struggle with English because
she has several personal connections. I believe that in her essay she presents to the public that just because an individual does not have to speak “perfect English”, it does not mean the person intellectual them. She was exposed understand to this and others from this English language, so it was for easy to go back and forth and understand them. exposed to this and others from this English language, so, it was easy for to her go back and forth and understand them. Amy utilizes many key points to
achieve her goal and reinforces my claim in her article. In one particular of the story, her mother said to the stockbroker “What he wants, I come to New York tell him in front of his boss, you cheating me? She
was trying to say in her article that the stockbroker attempts to defraud Amy’s mother from proceeds based on the belief that he can take advantage judging of her inability to speak fluent English. After the
stockbroker attempts to defraud her mother; she quickly resolves the situation by talking to him. On the occasion when the hospital staff lost the results of her brain scan. They treated the matter with no care in
the world and she has brushed it aside. The author’s main idea since they show evidence of how two people in the opposite spectrums of comprehending the English language achieve varied results in their
command of the language. Tan explains how her Mother’s English is different from her own, making communication difficult at times. She does, however, describe how her mother’s unusual method of
speaking helped her grasp the language better. Tan eventually concludes that her mother’slanguage was an advantage rather than a hindrance to her own schooling. The author’s main audience is mainly immigrants with an emphasis on their children. A person is considered intelligent if he speaks
English. In fact, a person is considered well-mannered and well educated when she/he speaks Fluent English. For example, Amy is more respected than her mother in society because of her good diction.

Jean Kwok’s “Girl in Translation “also tells a deeply moving and heartbreaking story of a poor Chinese girl and her mother working hard to create a life from the ground up. Jean Kwok was born in Hong Kong and as a child immigrated to Brooklyn, where she worked with her family in a sweatshop. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and completed an MFA in fiction at Columbia. When young Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to America, they speak no English and own nothing but debt. They arrive in New York hopeful for a better life, but instead a squalid Brooklyn apartment and backbreaking labor in a Chinatown sweatshop. Unable to accept this as her future, Kim
decides to use her “talent for school” to earn a place for herself and her mother in their adopted country. Life a school is no better for Kimberly. She entered elementary school unable to speak a word of English
and spent afternoons helping her parents in a sweatshop. With her inability to express herself in well in English makes her first several months a struggle. Disguising the most difficult truths of her meager existence, Kim embarks on a double life: an exceptional student day by day and a sweatshop worker by evening. It wasn’t easy for Kimberly. In addition, Kimberly also finds her teachers’ attitude off-putting and intimidating. She is forced to miss lessons as she is afraid of her classmates.

Mother Tongue “Tan emphasizes the importance of the voice of immigrants despite the limited English they can speak. Her challenge comes in since she must revert to “broken English” to relate with her mother and an as avoid an and outsider in her eyes. Throughout the article, the author present’s
a positive and hopeful tone and directly gives a message of hope. For instance, she explains that “it can seem that there is nowhere for you or on the road that will bring you wellbeing and satisfaction. The piece
has a strong depiction of the Asian American Struggles through the adaption of the English Language. Her life was widely dependent on her knowledge of different languages that constituted Language. We
get a clear picture about her school life from the second part along with the liabilities she experienced as a due to her mother’s inability to speak correct English.