Mother Tongue

A topic that is discussed in the article "Mother Tongue" is the importance of a person's home language. This is evident when the author Amy Tan mentions how her mother used to speak in broken English as she was not able to conform to the standard English causing her to stick with speaking her mother tongue, Chinese.

 I believe that conforming to speak Standard English is someones choice and shouldn't be something someone is forced to speak. However, moving abroad puts people in a position people to learn and develop the language that is most common in that area/region. For example, I've lived in the UAE for all my life which allows me to develop and hold onto my mother tongue that is Arabic. But if I for example moved abroad to a non-Arab speaking country, I would put myself in a situation where I would expand the common language that most people speak. This means that ones mother tongue is vital as it shapes your identity and provides you the empowerment to establish a sense of master identity and value towards your culture.

 I think this is the case because holding onto your mother tongue allows to:

1- Develop and maintain a positive, cultural identity in which children know that their home language is valued and important. Although some people may argue that not everyone is raised in there home country, allowing them to soley drift and feel that it is unessential for them will not allow them to exceed in any another language if they are not aware of their own mother tongue. Therefore holding onto there mother tongue will not only allow them to exceed in the language but also remember who they truly are and value their cultural identity.

2- Communicate and express themselves, freely and in increasingly complex ways. Even though some people may claim that not every mother tongue is something enjoyable to understand, it is the language you were born to speak and relate with amongst your family. This obviously helps children nurture relationships with family and friends in their home country for a continued sense of belonging. 

3- Transfer linguistic strengths, general skills and knowledge from their home languages to the language being learned, thus promoting proficiency in two languages and fostering bilingualism. This means that it is important to strengthen other languages as well because you will be able to communicate with different people and gain a variety of perspectives from one another. 

Overall, everyone must be able to express and distinguish themselves with the language that they speak yet seize the chance to learn another language that is most common in the area they are unfamiliar with because being bilingual allows you to expand your knowledge.