Journal Entry #1

To me personally I feel that Mother Tongue by Amy Tan is more relatable because of how I understood the problem with just the English language, not just reading and speaking the language. The more I read about her story growing up not speaking the right way with her mother helps me understand how she has changed as she began to grow older, and the way she writes her story makes the reader feel as if they are in the story with her. Firstly, she writes in first person but in a way that she is talking to the reader, as she always references the reader when she is asking a question or telling them what is happening. She also writes as if she was not a professional, as if she was the reader as well who is reading this as well. In the first paragraph she even tells the reader that she is not the most intellectual person who knows the English language, but someone who loves it.

She then begins to write more about her personal struggles, detailing every single problem she had to face. What made me feel more invested in this story was when she began talking about her struggles with living in an immigrant family, writing the the pronunciation of each word her mother spoke to better explain the situation. I connected with that moment and also how she had struggled with her education, as she was learning English. The first story of Frederick Douglas does seem more of an accomplishment but it did not connect with me as much as Amy Tan's story did, as I feel that went through the same problems as well. It also gave me a view on how much writing as a whole can help contribute not only to the reader, but also to the author, helping them cope with their emotions by writing it down in detailed stories.