Today in class we had a discussion about the essay "Mother Tongue". It was a good discussion as most of the class joined in the discussion. It was a calm group discussion so there was not any arguments or people not agreeing with anyone. When I first read the essay by Amy Tan "Mother Tongue", I thought it meant the language you grew up speaking with, but it turns out in the essay Tan mean literately her mothers tongue as she was talking about the way her mother speaks English and about her struggles and difficulties her mother has gone through not being able to speak formal English. She also talks about the way she had to cope with people not treating her mother right because of her difficulties. She explains in her essay that she had to speak on the phone instead of her mother but acting like she was her mother because she knew that the people on the phone wouldn't really understand what she was saying. She also talks about her perspective on the phrase "broken English" or "fractured English". I believe that there is no such thing as different English just different accents and dialects. Everyone has a different way of speaking English and nobody agrees with anybody. For example , English people think they speak the right English, but so do Scottish people , Americans, Canadians and so on. It also depends on the place you grew up in and depends on your first language. English is a world wide language and there cannot be a correct way of speaking English.

Mohamed Abousen.