Mother Tong

  

          The language we are talking was learned firstly at home and for years it changes because we go to school, and we meet people. Tan speaks a perfect English because she writes and has to speak a fluent English to make people understand her. However, her mother ,who is from China, speaks a limited English even if "she reads the Forbes report, listen to wall street week, reads all Shirley Madeleine's books with ease"(Tan 143), she still cannot have a good English. Hence, why our parents, in comparison with us, don't change their language even if they are knowledgeable people?  Tan's mother is not an exception, Moroccan fathers are also like that. They speak the Darija they used to speak when they were young, and they don't change it even if they move to a new city where the Darija is different. The same case is applied to French. The second language in Morocco is French, our parents speak it, but they still pronunciate it in an Arabic way. Sometimes, you cannot even understand even understand what they are talking about. In contrast with Tan, I considered this issue as a proof of our parent's respect to their culture and their roots. Speaking such language, which might be understandable, is a kind of memory of their childhood and their parents. There is no shame to speak your language because it is your identity.