Art in Limited language
...eas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.” Her language and – as a consequence – thoughts were strongly affected by her mother, who was born in a different country and raised in different cultural context. Her perspective was likely to differ from that of other “American” people. Furthermore, her expression in English might not have sounded proper to others, which shows the lack of testing ability of the society. By this, Tan argues that the society fails to understand the fact that every people have different imaginations, passions, and intentions, and that the gap is even wider if we are talking about different groups from different countries. The society decides only by looking at one’s language ability, and simply treats her and her mother as people with “wrong” thoughts. Language develops differently in different cultural contexts. It can be explained by making an example out of Chicano culture. Chicano refers to the Mexican people who were born in the United States. Chicanos were separated from their country, therefore they had to develop their culture and language on their own. As a result, their Spanish has been developed in a different manner from the way their parents’ has been developed, and moreover, within the Chicano culture there are different language patterns. Their culture is a type of mixture of both American and Mexican culture. Tan’s mother is the same case. She had to develop her own way of speaking English. We can observe this matter in terms of art: the ability to create beautiful things or a musical composition using a special medium and technique. Tan’s mother’s improper use of English can be thought of as a special medium and technique, and her life can be thought of as a musical composition. However, she was ignored by people in department stores, banks, and the restaurants. The society was unwilling to characterize her as a “different” being, but treated her as a “wrong” being. Rather than making an attempt to understand her, the society chose to ignore her completely. A society can be blinded by its own ignorance like this, as we can see in Vincent Van Gogh’s case, where his intelligence was discovered after his death, since the society was blinded by its own ignorance to see him as a decent artist. To the society, he was rather a poor, worthless artist, who was of no use. If you have ever made a visit to an ESL class and have talked to a student in such class, it is likely that you were confused by what they were saying. If you see them react to each other, however, they find a way to understand each other, even if they are speaking in limited English. When Tan started a conversation with her mother about buying furniture in “broken” English, her husband did not even notice the change in her language. Moreover, her husband uses English in the same manner from time to time. She describes tha...