"Mother Tongue" By Amy Tan

I liked this story because I can actually relate to it in a way. In deaf culture, many deaf people write the way they sign. To English-speaking people it may not make sense, but to other deaf people it makes perfect sense. Tan's mother spoken broken English but in her own world and her culture, it was perfect. How can we dispute such a claim if her Chinese history, culture, style, and grammar is so different from English?

The argument was effective, because it showed that her mother was a brilliant woman who read the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, reads difficult books like Shirley MacLaine's books. Tan's mother knew what she was doing, her only "imaginary barrier" is the prejudice she received from white people who assume she was a stupid woman because she did not speak in perfect grammar.

In the deaf world, a similar prejudice occurs. In writing, "How are you", is a English sentence, however in American Sign Language, people sign; "How you". In signing it is the right thing to say. So, which is which? Yet, when hearing people glance on paper when some deaf write the way they sign, they automatically think they are special-need or retarded, when in reality they can be lawyers, scientists, doctors and teachers.

I see a connection to this from "Using Reason and Common Sense", Page 93. One sentence matches the story is "Consciously or not, people are constantly stating claims, drawing conclusions, and making and questioning assumptions whenever they read or write." In books, Pop culture, movies, theater acting and drawings, many of them are assumed the wrong way. Not all Chinese people do Kung Fu. Not all black people play basketball. Not all Russians play chess.

It is a struggle to overcome cultural differences and changing the way people view others. As Tan put it perfectly, "What I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for I sought to preserve the essence, but not either an English or a Chinese structure. I wanted to capture what language ability test can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts." I believe that should apply to all languages, especially American Sign Language.