Mother Tongue by Amy Tan -- Summary

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The protagonist's mother speaks Chinese-influenced English. Now she appreciates that this language molded her perception of language and the world, but when she was young she was ashamed of her mother's "broken English" (now she deems the term unfit). Her mother's English did have some downsides. She was treated poorly because of the way she spoke and Amy would have to pretend to be her to command respect and get things done. 

She didn't score high on English aptitude tests because her command of English was influenced by Chinese which made her approach to words different than the approach the tests demanded. Her teachers tried to steer her into maths where she did score better but she was stubborn and turned to English. She was criticized for bad writing but persisted, and even took to using fancy words to prove her worth. But then she decided to imagine she was writing for her mother and she tried to capture the essence of her simple English and her mother's broken English and her mother approved of her writing and she "knew she had succeeded where it counted". 

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