Quickwrite 12/8

I found this piece to be very interesting due to how many Asian people are here on Michigan State's campus. In fact my TA for my math class is very similar to this he may be the smartest person, but I judge him based on that I can only understand about 50 percent of what he says to the class. This piece made a lot of sense to me because as bad as it sounds I judge people who speak "broken" English all the time, and this piece really makes me think that I should strive to not judge a person just by how they speak but rather their actions and personality they have.

12/8 Post

I found this piece to be very interesting. She mentions that her mom spoke in broken down English. There are a lot of students here at MSU that are the same way. I have a lot of kids from China that are in one of my other classes and we are required to work in groups. I often finding myself speaking in very simple sentences and not using any slang. I find it very easy to relate to Amy Tan.

Quickwrite 12/8

Can narrative be arguement? Can stories be arguements?

In my opinion, yes, narratives and stories can be arguements. Earlier in the class we also discussed how everything can be an arguement, but aside from that, when narrating or telling a story, one could be arguing thier own opinion on a fact. Or even arguing how they view the story should be told or how it happened. If you really wish to argue a point, I wouldn't reccomend a vague tactic like that when you could just blatantly argue your point, but narratives and stories can in my opinion argue, even if it is discreetly.

12/8

This was a pretty interesting reading. Ive always knew there was different type/forms of english, but never knew any one else considered this. in the story it touches on how you speak influences how your treated. also that the people your around influences the way you speak. after being around someone for so long you tend to pick up their style of speaking.

Quickwrite 12/8

I think the reading was really interesting. I did not know that kids dont realize that if their mom or dad grow up with a different language they do not see how many mistakes they actually make in their other language.  I also thought it was really funny that the daughter had to call the bank of her mom to make a complain, because she was to afraid, that they would not take her seriously because of her poor English. But I also think that it pretty sad that people judge other people because of their ability to be not fluent in a FOREIGN language. A lot of those people are actually better educated and smarter than the other party, but they just cannot show it like them.

Sebastian

MOTHER TONGUE 12/8/11

A narrativeis more effective that an opinion because it isn't forcing an idea on someone it is simply telling story and people can react to it in any way that they please. But by the way the story is told, it can give a message and people will tend to interpret it a certain way. Stories keep the audience interested and they can infer things in their own way, so people are more open to what is being said. In an opinion paper, people will tend to take a stance right away and not stray from that belief, but a story grows on you and slowly changes your mind without saying your opinion isn't valid.

Quickwrite 12/8

I think a narrative can be an argument. The writer is talking about the importance of a child's learning abilities along with the language they are brought up in. I think that the writer didn't try to persuade anyone to think that every child should be brought up the same way, she just implied that her mother using English in her household really benefited her intelligence. The narrative just forces the reader to think a different way about the topic.

Quickwrite 12/8

The story Mother Tongue was kind of cool how one persons english can change their lifestyle so much. This girl knew all sorts of english which helped her become who she was but the style of english she could use depended on who she was talking to and about. When she was giving a talk she finally realized how some people, including her mother, would have no idea what she is trying to say. I found it weird how spot on she was because I experience this at MSU when you try talking to TA's or even the professor one on one. It is amazing how different the languages are.

Quickwrite 12/8

I felt that "Mother Tongue" was a very strong argumentative piece. I believe she has a whole paragraph explaining how she would have to act as her mother on the phone, because her mother's broken English wasn't taken seriously. I agree with her argument, even though I haven't had a personal experience, because the listeners would probably think broken English is just her being lazy. Also it was unfortunate to her when it came to the ACT. Since the English subject isn't my strong point, I also felt like the ACT was about which sentence sounded the best to me. Thus making me relying on the English I heard growing up around me.

quickwrite 12/8

Can a narative be an argument? Can Stories be Arguments?

Yes both of these can be arguments. while they are not as direct as a presuasive piece strories and naratives argue by showing that certain actions cause certain things to happen. like when Tan talks about how the nature of english placement tests pushes many asian americans toward math and science she is argueing that these test are the cause for this trend. Stories often have a moral to them and this is an argument to behave a certain way.

-Jeff

Mother Tongue

I believe I know what she means when she talks differently to different people. She has a certain language, almost a mini dialect with this person that she and the other person understand perfectly, but it might not be perfect English. My roommate Di is Chinese and the way I talk to him is different than the way I talk to others. When I talk to him I have to slow way down and use common words that he as used to using before. For instance the other day he wanted me to come eat with him and his girlfriend and he said to me, "You are going, eat, come with us." I try my best to make him understand the correct way of saying it. The more I talk to him the more I accidentally use this "language" i have with Di with my other friends.

12/8 Quickwrite

I found this piece to be very interesting due to how many Asian people are here on Michigan State's campus. In fact my TA for my math class is very similar to this he may be the smartest person, but I judge him based on that I can only understand about 50 percent of what he says to the class. This piece made a lot of sense to me because as bad as it sounds I judge people who speak "broken" English all the time, and this piece really makes me think that I should strive to not judge a person just by how they speak but rather their actions and personality they have.

Blogpost Thursday December 8

In my opinion, both stories and narratives can be arguments. Stories can be examples of arguments when talking about something that the author disagrees with. The whole point of the story in this example would be to argue against what it is the author disagrees with. Also, when writing a narrative, you could be writing about something you disagree with, or some injustice that occurred to you and the whole point of relaying your story could be to tell people what happened, and argue that this is wrong.

QW 12-8-11

I do not believe that a narrative can be an argument although I do believe that it can be used to process and support an argument. For example, in this case Tans narrative basically illustrated an example for the purpose that even through adversity success can be obtained. So basically stories and narratives are simply first hand examples that support an argument. If one were to analyze this on a credibility argument, the author does not provide enough evidence for me to assume that her claim is correct. Therefore this does not make a successful argument.

Quickwrite 12/8

My general reaction to "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan is that it is very interesting and inspiring that she was able to become such a great speaker and writer (in English) when her mother has spoken "broken" english her whole life. I enjoyed reading this because she tells her story of her struggles growing up with a mother who her friends couldn't understand and also more recent situations where she has to step in and speak for her mother.

quickwrite 12/8

This piece made me realize that there are several uses of English that I/we employ every day. I use a certain language to talk to my friends, a different one to talk to my grandparents and mother, and another one to write educational papers. Even though we use different languages for different acquaintances, we still employ the use of argument into our language. I can kind of relate to the author of understanding our mother's language, but my mother and I use a hybrid English in which we speak formally but educated as well. It hs always been like this and I think that is why i enjoy reading and writing so much.

QR 1/8/11

My general reaction to this piece was that it was a very easy and fun reading. I liked it because I could relate to it alot. When she talked about her friends not being able to understand her mother made me think of my grandma because she is from Poland and has a very strong accient and most of my friends cant understand her at all, but my friends from gradschool who have known her longer understand her a lot better. I ofcourse can complelty understand her 100 percent because I grew up with her allwyas talking to me. Also the part where Amy had to pretneced she was her mother so people woulnt ingore her or preternd not her hear here made me think of times when my bobcia goes out on family dinners to resultants, we have to order for her because usually they dont understand her accient. This piece made me relize that people today who are faced with different nationalities and accents dont really care or try to help them out when it comes to situations that might take them a little bit longer to handle, the part where Mrs. Tan went to the hospital to get a CT scan for her brain really made me sad to think that they would just pretend they lost her so she couldn't get the results right away. Overall I really enjoyed reading this because it really related to me and I could see alot of myself in Amy.
One part that I tahguht was very interesting was when she talked about how most Asian orientated people go into math and sciences because their language is known as more "broken" or not as good. So I liked how she wanted to strive harder to break that stereotype. It also made me think if that is why I enjoy math and science more than writing because when I was younger I was allways arround my grandma who you could say had "broken" English.
As far as the argument part of this piece I would say she did a great job having examples of how she has became a better writer by trying her best to becoming a great writer.

quickwrite 12/8

I found this reading pretty interesting because it discussed the many forms of language, more specifically the english language. The most effective part, in my opinion, was when the author talked about broken english. It was an interesting term for me, because as she said I never thought of language as something that is fixable. For people not from the United States, they have this problem a lot, where it is difficult to understand them because of their lack of experience of the english language. It was interesting for me to take a closer look at this way of thinking about language.

QuickWrite 12/8

I thought that this piece showed the will to learn a language and appreciate it. She mentioned that there wasn't anything that she didn't like about a certain language, because she loved everything about language. Her interest in foreign language was greater than her mother's, therefor, she learned to be more fluent. When you have an interest in something, you tend to succeed more often.

quickpost 12/8

Tan's "Mothers Tongue" is an argument because she is "arguing" that it is a different language, or different form of a language. The language being english. She argues this by showing the effects that the way her mother speaks had on her everyday life. One example was when her mom was at the doctor for results from a CAT scan and they had lost the scan. The doctors were going to make her come back later for another and schedule a later appointment. But when she made the doctor call her daughter who spoke clear english the doctor was more willing to work with the mom.