Language Differences

4 Pages 1110 Words

The essays “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and “Public and Private Language” by Richard Rodriquez are recollections of both authors personal battles with language. Their stories are very different but each essay attempts to illustrate the personal struggle the two of them went through to discover their voice. The two of them battled with all the forms of language they had to learn. In their lives they were faced with having two forms of language, the “private” language that was only spoken at home and the “public” language that was for everyone else. For Richard Rodriquez his struggle was with English and Spanish alone. Amy Tan, on the other, was faced with different levels of English.
In both essays there is discussion of public and private language. Each author defines it differently. Amy Tan defines her “private” language as a language of intimacy. “The English I spoke to my mother” (21). It seems to be what she uses with those that are within her family spectrum. “My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It’s because over the twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with”.(4) The way that Tan and her mother speak to each other is in a form of broken English, an English that comes from an immigrants comprehension of the language. This “private” language is like a secret code between Tan and her mother. It is the tie that keeps them connected and close.
Richard carries a different perspective of his private language. For Richard there is no explanation or clarification needed. Spanish is what his family speaks at home and to each other. His language is what ties him to his roots and his colture. Rodriquez identifies with his Spa...