Mother Tongue and How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Anzaldua- "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

Throughout "How to Tame a Wild Tongue", Anzaldua emphasizes how she is a Chicano, and hopes not to see the Spanish language disappear among the United States. Within the passage, Anzaldua implements numerous quotes to show how proud of her language she is, and that she will continue to speak Spanish to keep the language alive. Anzaldua employs "So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity- I am my language." to imply that her language makes her who she is. Anzaldua also states "Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate…", to emphasize how she wishes the United States would be more open to Spanish speaking and writing. Also, Anzaldua says "I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing" to display that she is looked down upon for being a Spanish speaker in the United States, but wishes the people who shame her would accept the language.

Throughout the passage, Anzaldua includes quotes in Spanish to show her readers that she is capable of speaking and writing fluently in both English and Spanish. She uses quotes such as "En boca cerrada no entran moscas. "Flies don't enter a closed mouth."" to indicate that, when she was a child, she heard this phrase often from others, telling her to not speak in the language that she knew. She also includes phrases such as "Si le preguntas a mi mama "Que eres?" the dira", to indicate to the reader that her home spoke Spanish vey frequently, as their main way of communication. Anzaldua also states "Los Chicanos, how patient we seem, how very patient." to display that, herself, as a Chicano, addresses her fellow Chicanos, to give them hope for the future of the United States and hope that they will accept the language and the people who speak it.

Tan, "Mother Tongue"

–Her friends hardly understand her mother's English, but she understands her mother perfectly.

-She would describe her mothers English as broken, but she winces when she says so. Broken usually means it should be fixed, "as if it lacked certain wholeness and soundness"; She was ashamed of her mother's English.

–Everyone her mother encountered would "not understand her" or be rude to her because of her English.

–Tan wished to capture not her mother's broken English, but instead, "her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts.

–She organizes this work to applying real life examples of how her mother was treated, and differentiates it from the life of herself. At the end of the passage, she brings the two together, stating that she wanted to capture everything language tests could not capture about her mother.

Tan and Anzaldua's passages both touch on how the barriers of their native languages have hindered both of their lives. They both use real life examples to display how badly they were treated because of the language their families used. Throughout both passages, they both throughly implement pathos, tugging at the reader's emotions by telling of how badly they were treated and disrespected. Tan states "In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her", implying that her mother was poorly treated for the way she spoke English. Anzaldua mentions "If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me", to imply that the people of where she lived would look down on her because the mix of languages she spoke.

Memory

While growing up, I had a secret language with my sister. Throughout my childhood, my sister and I were very close, and we made up secret codes when we spoke to keep my mom from knowing what we were saying. As Tan said, "Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use", to exemplify that she spoke differently than her mother did.

My English does not differ from my parents' English, but differs from my grandparents' English. My grandparents are from Virginia, so whenever they were growing up, they learned different lingo than what I currently use. Tan states "… the forms of English that I did not use at home with my mother", to show that they spoke in English differently. This connects to me because my grandparents say things that I do not understand, and I say different things than that of what my grandparents say.

In an academic environment, I tend to use different English than in a relaxed setting. When in an academic environment, I try to use as much well-educated vocabulary as I can, but when in a relaxed setting, I do not worry about things such as this. I also normally limit some of the things I would normally say when in an academic environment.

Anzaldua, Gloria. How To Tame A Wild Tongue

Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue and How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Source: https://rachelellerblogfolio.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/how-to-tame-a-wild-tongue-mother-tongue/

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