We also believe that everybody has their own version of English. She noticed that she personally uses a different version of English when she is communicating with her mother compared to her giving a lengthy speech to group of people. The more you hear someone talk in "broken" English, you can understand them more than someone who doesn't hear "broken" English often. She explained this when she said that some of her friends understand 50 percent of what her mother is saying. Others say they understand 80 to 90 percent and some say it sounds like she is speaking Chinese.
In the Amy Tan’s personal essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan tells about her emotion and her mother's struggle over English language. In this first couple of sentences of essay she showed her emotion and passion. “I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about power of language the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual images, a complex idea or a simple truth”(135). Then she goes on to her mother and her “broken" and "limited" English, like for example “he came to my wedding. I didn’t see it, I heard it. I done to boy’s side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen”(136). First time we were confuse while we were reading because we couldn't understand, but later in the essay she gave more examples over her mother's "broken" English and the moments in her life. That helped us to understand her point she talked about in this essay.
