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Opinion Column on Mother Tongue by: Amy Tan

Our mother tongue languages are the most important part of our existence and it makes most of our identity, however there has always been an argument about weather or not everyone around the whole world needs to learn the Standard English. Well, to be honest that’s not true at all! In fact you need to believe that the importance of a persons language is imbedded in there home language, because that is what makes them unique in there own culture and personality. Everyone needs to trust me on this… come on!

Now, a person’s mother tongue langue is very significant, but many of you ask, what about learning Standard English? Isn’t that supposed to help everyone communicate with each other in a much easier way? There is no right answer to these questions, since Children living in the UK or any other English speaking country need to learn English to succeed in there school or professional lives. However, the English foreigners might learn to speak is not the standard English the citizens of that country want them to speak, therefore they get judged and criticized since they speak differently and cant express themselves properly in the English language, which is essentially there second language. Bilinguals start to wonder whether certain words and terms exist in both languages they speak. Sometimes they even try to translate idioms from there own language to English, but when they come to say it, it doesn’t make sense to the other person and thus leading to conflicts and misunderstandings.

What’s the right thing to do in this case? Well, to make it clear people around English speaking countries need to respect those who come from other countries carrying different accents and dialects.  Mother tongue language is always going to be clear, perfect and natural to that specific individual. It will always be vivid and full of imagery; it also helps the way you see things and connect to the world. Hence, the answer is being positive about the different cultures and languages surrounding you and excepting the “broken” “fractured” English foreigners might speak since in return they can teach you the beautiful wholeness and undamaged home language they speak on a day to day bases.

19% of the US population reported in Gallup’s survey that it is important to learn English to survive in the US, however the other 81% of the population think it is not very important neither it is essential. Then why the heck will you judge people by the way they speak English if it’s there second language.

Thinking about it now, if a pure English speaker where to come and speak lets say Indian and the words they say where pronounced incorrectly or the speech sounded very odd, then the English speaking person would not like it if the Fluent Indian speaker judged them.

One of my closet friends from Indonesia, goes through the same problem with her mom, they judge her mom by the way she speaks English even though it’s not her home language. But, this girl is very clever and open-minded since she always says that the imperfection in her mother’s English speech means that her ideas are just as imperfect, thus it shows that her mother acts and is who she really is, a women who is not changing or forgetting her home language to please anyone else but proud of the home language she has and the way she interacts with people using her second language.

That should get your minds thinking about weather or not your home language has a major importance in your life. When your in bed tonight, looking up high at the celling of our bedroom wall, think about your mother tongue and if its being taken over by the a second language you had to learn. Does that lead to confused identities hence confusion between both dialects?

P.S- This is a command not a suggestion!