The "Correct" Language

We were asked what is “correct language” however in both essays that we read; Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” and Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”, they support the answer that there isn’t an actual “correct” language. Every race, ethnic group, etc. has a different version of a language. As in Anzaldúa’s her language is Chicano English which deviates in many ways from Spanish brought from Europe to Mexico and to Central and South America. In her essay she talks about how different languages can mold with other languages. We tend to perceive English as the “correct” language, and then try to press that language onto people from different countries, and then grow belligerent when whoever they are trying to teach have an accent and can’t speak the way we do.

Ironically we’ve created different versions of the English language. Like Tan talked about in her essay that she used “all the Englishes she grew up with” (Tan, 305) and referred to those Englishes as either simple language (English she spoke to her mother), and broken language (the language that her mother talked to her with). Nowadays we’ve simplified the English language even more (i.e. Laugh Out Loud=LOL).  And in both essays the audience affected both women. For Anzaldúa, everyone was attempting to tell her that the Chicano English was wrong, even those who also spoke Chicano English. For Tan she became sensitive when she was around her mother. For me the audience greatly affects me. When I’m with my friends I tend to be loud and outgoing, and I will argue a bit more. With my family I tend to be quieter and my language sophisticates itself and I sound more mature to them.