Language and Culture - Essay Example

Compare and Contrast Essay Amy Tan and Richard Rodriguez are bilingual Tan was born to Chinese parents and Rodriguez has a Latin background and Spanish speaking parents. Both the writers fight for identity and the language that their family and ancestors used to speak. Their struggles share many resemblances however both have described their situations in different manners giving readers varioussides of being bilingual. Tan expressed herself in “Mother Tongue” and Rodriguez tells his story in “Aria: a Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”. Both Tan and Rodriguez had to fight with their internal struggles; their desire for speaking their native language and the need to speak the language of the society they lived in. The major difference between them was in their perceptions of the significance of preserving their family language. The titles chosen by both writers for their stories also define their feelings. Tan names her story “Mother Tongue” which has a more emotional feel to it, whereas Rodriguez opts for a more straightforward title of “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” in which you can’t really feel emotion but the story does explain all his feelings and the emotion is built as the story progresses. It is a recollection of various memories that convey Rodriguez’s point of view. Tan and Rodriguez realize the intimacy of their native language at different times of their lives. During her talk on her book “Joy Luck Club”, her mother was sitting in the audience. At that time she realized that the way she used English language was different depending on who she was talking to. At home she used a broken form of the language whereas for the society she preferred more formal English. She concluded that it had become a language of intimacy, different English for the family which was a language she had grown up with. Tan understands that she never lost the importance of the family language and the role it had played in her life, as she says “it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” (Tan, 431). On the other hand Rodriguez realized the role of his family language when he was much younger. Like Tan his identity also altered as he stepped inside his home. When his mother used to call out to him in Spanish he felt at home and his mother’s words would comfort him. He felt sure of his family identity and feared the language of the society. Rodriguez unlike Tan lost this feeling of intimacy early in life. Both the writers felt guilt when they averred a discriminating identity towards their family. The reason they did that was both their parents could not speak English properly. Tan describes her mother’s English as very ‘limited’. It was this broken language that limited Tan’s perception of her mother. She uses words such as “broken” and “fractured” to explain her mother’s English which shows that she is very ashamed by it. Tan believed that the quality of her mother’s English was directly related to the quality of what she said and this must reflect badly on her. She could not express her thoughts perfectly thus making her thoughts imperfect as well. Her beliefs were reinforced by the way people used to treat her mother. Tan states plenty of empirical evidence in her story. She wrote that people in stores, restaurants, banks did not give importance to her; sometimes they would even ignore her, pretending that they did not hear her. Rodriguez writes about similar situations; he too was embarrassed of his parents when they spoke the language of the society. It would make him feel that his parents were not powerful and could not protect him. He also supports his feelings with the society’s behavior towards his parents. Rodriguez uses a strong language and some Spanish words as well including “gringo” and “pocho”. Both Tan and Rodriguez understood later in life how very wrong they were about their parents, at one point Tan said “my mother's English is perfectly clear. ... It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world" (Tan, 433) The inability of their parents to speak proper English encouraged both Tan and Rodriguez to create their own identities which were different from their parents’ identities. Tan worked really hard to embrace the society’s language and so did Rodriguez. Rodriguez appears to be spending his life in contradiction as he says “The child reminds the adult: to seek intimate sounds is to seek the company of intimates.  I do not expect to hear those sounds in public.  I would dishonor those I have loved, and those I love now…”. (Rodriguez , 465) He went to a Catholic school where everyone was a fluent English speaker whereas his English words vocabulary was limited to fifty five words. This led others to believe that he was not as talented and not so good in studies simply because he was unable to speak English. Although he lost his family language intimacy, he writes many times that the loss was worth it. Tan knew how to speak English since her childhood whereas Rodriguez learned it after he was seven years old. Tan was however fortunate enough to realize that she had somehow upheld the intimacy of her family language along with the society’s language whereas Rodriguez lost it on his way to gaining his American identity. He was unable to find a common connection with his parents and as his Spanish skills weakenedhis interaction with them lessened. Both the writers also talk about the consequences of private languages on several ethnic groups. According to Tan most of the Asian Americans gravitate to careers in sciences and mathematics because of their difficulty in speaking the English language. She describes herself as an example mentioning that she was also once in such a situation. She also points out that it is questions with given definite answers are easier to answer than subjective questions which are comparatively more open for explanation. Rodriguez is of the opinion that while private languages are a good way to communicate with family, public language such as English is a highly important tool for interacting with the society and making them understand you and give you the importance that you deserve. Tan and Rodriguez both believe that although difficult, it is important to learn the society’s language. Both writers are successful in enlightening readers’ perception of the hardships that a person from a different society feels in trying to adjust and what the things that they have to give up in the process. Both used their personal experiences, which are quite common in nature, to convince the readers of their arguments. References Rodriguez, Richard. “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood.” 1980. The Best American Essays of the Century. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Atwan. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.447-466 Tan, Amy. "Mother tongue." Enriching ESOL Pedagogy: Readings and Activities for Engagement, Reflection, and Inquiry, by Vivian Zamel, Ruth Spack. Lawrence Erlbaum (2002): 431-435. Read More