Response to “Mother tongue”

After reading the article “Mother Tongue” written by Amy Tan, I begin to realize the different languages used in my daily life. In my opinion, language may vary when speaking to different generations, used in formal or casual situations or to express meaning more directly.This is especially true when comparing English to Chinese.

The language used among my peers is different from another generation in various ways. First, we use English more. For example, when I meet a friend, I say "Hi" to them, and say "Bye" when I'm leaving. That's pretty much the same here in America. However, I can never imagine my parents say that to their colleagues. Another difference is that we use lots of abbreviation, those words often come from Internet chatting, for example, BTW means “by the way”, B4 means “before”. Youth use numbers to express our thoughts too; some boys may write the number 131421 to his girlfriend, which means love you forever, because the pronunciation is similar to that in Chinese. Again, I guess my parents will never understand that.
As for the languages I use in formal situation, basically are the same languages I use in my daily life. But since the formal speech usually occurs when I'm reporting to my teachers and classmates, I may choose to use more political words, such as harmonious society, environmental protection. These words can often be heard on the news, using these words can make my report sounds more advanced and convincing.

Since I am in American now, I become to realize the difference between English and Chinese in conveying meaning. Some say language is power because it carries the thoughts of people. Since English is more direct than Chinese, I may form a more outgoing characteristic during my staying here. For example, when speaking, Chinese tend to be reserved. They always say half of the sentence, and leave the other half for listeners to guess, hoping they will know the meaning naturally by themselves. However, when I live in this English speaking environment, I use English to think more. That is, I choose to express my entire feeling in English. For example, if I dislike something, I will just say the word “hate”, but I never use the Chinese character before. This example shows that English is more direct than Chinese. Overall, language use differences reflect differences between cultures.