Mother Tongue: Inferiority Complex?

Back from a short hiatus, that spanned the course of four days I felt it unjust for me to leave my dedicated readers without another insightful post from yours truly … that or I have been mandated by Mr. Michael to write another blog post regarding our latest endeavours.

However, before we delve into the topic of this Blog Post, submerging ourselves in the beauty that is language, its time to reveal the new WOW word of the day. Inspired by the article, “Good English Bad” discussed in the preceding post, the word ‘apoplectic’ not only sounds amazing but connotes an adjective with rather intense inferences. The word by definition means, “overcome with anger; furious.” An apt example of this could be, “Mr. Michael was apoplectic at the thought of students considering Language and Literature to be easier than Literature.”

Moving on to the second item of business, recently in class we read an article written by Amy Tan. Titled, “Mother Tongue” the article examines the struggles faced by individuals whose Mother Tongue/First language isn’t English. A personal subject to Amy Tan, who herself is not a native English Speaker the article makes use of her many retrospective examples, of which primarily centre around her mother, the conduit through which she reached the realization of this issue. Prefaced with an equivocal tone, “I am not a scholar of English Literature … I cannot give you much more than opinions …” Tan expresses her idea and opinions regarding this subject matter, while abstaining from a didactic tone, calling upon the discretion of reader to relate to and absorb the themes coherent throughout the article. The theme that particularly resonated with me is the inferiority complex inadvertently developed and expressed towards people whose diction, as classified by Tan herself is “Broken English.” A prevalent issue within society, those proficient at speaking the language unknowingly share a proclivity for stigmatizing those who struggle to adhere to the countless pedantic grammatical structures deeming them to be inept. In doing so we dismiss them believing them to be inferior, “people in department stores, at banks and at restaurants did not take her seriously.” This erroneous mindset causes discrimination, which is strange considering its place in a society that advocates equality regardless of color or creed. Tan showcases the dire repercussions a mindset like this can have using the real life experience of the struggle her mother faced at a medical center. In the hopes of receiving a consultation regarding a Brain Tumor a CAT scan had revealed earlier that month the clerks responded to her indifferently in spite of her anxious disposition due to the fact she lost her husband and son to a similar diagnosis, “She said they would not give her any information until the next time.” However once Tan arrived, “who spoke in perfect English … we had assurance the CAT scan would be found.”

An issue that never occurred to me before, it further re-emphasized the function of language – communication and how through academia and time these functions have been substituted with finicky rules along with this misconstrued idea of articulation. This realization had a profound impact on me as it negated my tendency to correct the speech of others as in the multi-cultural society I live in, English is predominantly a second language. I hope this post proved to be food for thought and till next time …

Stay True to You (New Catchphrase birthed through my personal development as a result of this course)