Language barriers and cultural differences are a real problem for people. Children of immigrant families gain unique insight and experience as bilingual children; they will become familiar with two different backgrounds. Amy Tan, author of "Mother Tongue", uses her personal experiences with her mother to draw a contrast between her mother who speaks "broken English", other people, and herself who speaks "perfect English" but is also fluent in broken English. Tan talks about how people are treated differently based on how they speak, if you appear to be more sophisticated and say your sentences precisely, you can earn people's respect more easily. He uses his essay to convince people that language is not so superficial. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan uses anecdotes and anaphora to emphasize that language is not about surface structure, but rather about the underlying meaning from which thoughts come. Tan uses anecdotes throughout the essay to describe his growing wisdom of language and its evolving roles in his life. He has found that while giving formal lectures, he uses phrases such as “The intersection of memory with imagination” and “There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to so-and-so.” But when he is with his mother, he will use the same “broken English” that his mother uses. When they talked about the "price of used furniture," she found herself saying this: "Don't waste money that way." This illustrates the difference between the two types of language Tan uses. It may be a habit for her mother to understand better, but Tan says her mother is able to understand words. These anecdotes lead to a widespread belief that people who have language barriers are not intelligent enough to understand what is being said. It has been dictated to us that we must appear intelligent in order for people to believe we are intelligent. However, Tan uses these anecdotes to argue that we cannot judge a person's speech wrong, it is the passion with which they speak and the meaning they are trying to convey, that makes a person a truly effective speaker. Tan also uses repetition to draw comparisons between his "perfect English" and his mother's "broken English", describing the specific problems of each. In addition to the constant use of broken, simple, imperfect, and perfect English to describe the difference between her and her mother's speech, the author also uses repetition when describing others' views of her mother's speech. Tan had no trouble understanding her mother's language because she grew up with it, but "some of her friends said they understood 50 percent of what her mother said. Some say they understand 80 to 90%. Some say they don't understand anything, as if he were speaking pure Chinese." She then goes on to say that “her mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural” because she grew up around it. This clearly shows a distinction between Tan's view and other people's view of his mother's language. It gives the audience the image of her having a foot in both cultures. This way you gain more credibility by speaking from personal experience. It clearly shows that although others may see it a certain way, others may see it in a different way, and language, like many other things, cannot be judged quickly..