Blog Post 5 - Mother Tongue

In "Mother Tongue", Amy Tan discusses the importance of a person's home language. Many people often speak the most common language used around. In our case, at Raha, lessons are in fact taught in English (excluding the language subjects), so many students tend to use the English language to communicate. Do many of you do the same ? Do you speak English or the common language used throughout the school more often than your mother tongue language? Over at our school, that is usually the case. I have many friends in our school community who speak their mother tongue language at home in their own environment. Unfortunately for myself, I only speak, write and can read fluently in one language, English.

I believe that Tan expresses her opinions in "Mother Tongue" as she believes that even though you don't look like someone who would know how to speak English, people assume that you don't know how to speak the language. Although, being able to speak or not English as a language doesn't make you less intelligent than anyone else who speaks, who has been brought up to know English as their mother tongue language. People technically 'label' you as someone who wouldn't know or speak "Broken" or "Fractured" English. I agree with her opinion as people see people for the first time who look or seem to be multicultural. These people who would be considered bilingual, you would first interpret that they wouldn't know how to speak English. Although I believe that people should, in fact, give people the chance of being able to use their second language (can be English) to further develop it in their everyday life when they need to communicate with people around them.
Before I get too carried away, let's talk about the purpose of this blog post, which is the Importance of a person's home language. In my opinion, the importance of a person's mother tongue language can be interpreted in different perspectives.
The include:
Personal: When a child is born into a family that speaks their own language, it is essential that that language is carried on throughout their childhood as it develops his or her identity. Preserving the language would assist in the child's cultural and heritage values.
Social: When the families traditional language (mother tongue) does not follow the child through life, it would reduce the links to the family and different communities would be lost. In my opinion, because Ii had the opportunity to have been brought up in a bilingual community. Although, may families around the world who are learning or enhancing their mother tongue language or a second language, they would send their children to a country that speaks the language. Then the children would be welcomed by another family, who would take care of you. The only issue is that they only speak either own mother tongue, the language that you are trying to enhance. I believe that this allows you to gain knowledge of the language as you have the opportunity to pick up the language when you are forced to use the language to communicate.
don't speak two languages fluently, I wish
Intellectual: I believe that people need to not be interrupted when they are developing a language. When a person who is not fluent in a language should just use only that language. Like stated in Social, because then "you are forced to use the language to communicate" which would further enhance your knowledge. When children are speaking their mother tongue language at home with their parents, their parents are more likely will correct them in pronunciation and errors as they know best, meaning that both parents and children are communicating at the same intellectual maturity. If they were to be interrupted, they tend to work intellectually a lot younger than their age.
Educational: Students specifically in Raha, learn and are being educated in the English language. Because Raha has 75 or more nationalities, many students would either be bilingual or multilingual. If those students keep up and maintain their mother tongue language, they have a higher chance academically to be successful than those who have to reduce and are limiting their knowledge of their mother tongue language.
Economic: When it comes to Economics and employments, many businesses want someone on the job who can speak a variety of language depending on the career path you wish to go through. For example, people who want to go through marketing, you would need to speak at least two or more  languages to open up the audience you wish present your product to.
Overall, I believe that there is an importance to maintaining a person's home language because there are many advantages of having more than one language. You can communicate to a larger audience, talk to family members and other communities, being able to successfully use your mother tongue language to pursue your career path.

Work Cited Page

"IDRA." IDRA. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

"Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue": The Purpose And Power Of Language - EssayJudge." Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue": The Purpose And Power Of Language - EssayJudge. N.p., 17 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.