"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan assignment

Being a person who can speak more than one language and that of my peers brings a different situation of communication between our parents. This is because our parents are the natives of our first language and they can speak it well as almost as perfectly. When I was growing up, my parents talked to me in Tagalog, a Filipino language, instead of English. I started learning the universal language when I was 5 years old. I only developed the English language at school and my peers. Then from there, I could already tell the difference between my abilities to speak it and my parents. My parents speak English in the formal way all the time, but on top of that, they speak it ‘broken’ as of what the author, Amy Tan, is referring to her mother in the book “Mother Tongue”.

Whenever I speak to my peers, I always talk to them in English even though they could speak in a different language the same way I do. The way I speak to them is differ from the way I speak to my parents and elders, because it is considered speaking in less formal situation when you talk to your friends rather than speaking to people older than you. Talking to elders in a formal way is a sign on showing respect, while having a conversation to your peers is rather fun in the kind of way. The language I natively speak has a similar formal and informal approach of voice or tone between the English languages.

Languages for me are the expressions of communication from people who could speak different ones. The way I see languages in different sorts are how they are in different manners when you speak them. For instance, Tagalog language has a different tenor and it simultaneously change of voice compared to the English language.