I can completely relate to Amy Tan's short story "Mother Tongue" and how she had to use “standard
English” for her mother to understand what she was talking about. But instead
of myself having the issue to change my words so others understand, I am the
one who doesn’t understand. Sometimes the people I am around say words that I just
don’t understand the meaning. I’m the type of person who isn’t very good with
large words. I stick to simple words. It can be embarrassing sometimes when I have
to ask what a word means. Sometimes I just play it off like I know the meaning
and work around the word and just try to understand the rest of the sentence.
It would give me a better excuse if I was from another country and didn’t speak
English very well. But the sad fact is I was born and raised in America and
still don’t know the definition of the larger words that many people do know
and use on a daily bases. I’m always open to learning new things so even if
they need to break it down for me I can learn from them and use it to enhance
my own vocabulary.
I agree that even though I was also born and raised in America, my English vocabulary isn't that great. However, I am proud that (according to a little research) I can speak one of the hardest language in the world, Mandarin. Just like Mandarin, the English language has thousands of words and I would like to improve on my bilingual skills and hopefully be a trilingual one day.
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