“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

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c) “My mother’s limited English limited my perception of her” (p731). Recall an incident where this quotation applies to your own perception of another person.

“You will hit if off with her,” my kindergarten teacher told me.

Anxiety gripped me in the hands as I tried to imagine what my new classroom neighbour would look like. For a week, I have been pondering on ways to introduce myself to her. As the days go by, I could vividly imagine the seat beside me taken by a sweet little girl, I figured we would be the best of friends.

Finally the day of revelation arrived. Our teacher was all smiles when she came into class, and the whole class was unusually silent. It was time to introduce our new classmate.

“I am honoured to welcome our new classmate Lee Zi Yi, which will be joining our class for the rest of this year.”

All eyes were shifted to the door, eager to welcome our new classmate. A pretty little innocent girl came in, gave a curtsy, and immediately I fell in love. She walked to the middle of the class, and began her welcome speech.

“Good… Morn…ing…fell…low…people” she stuttered.

The class roared into laughter soon after, and the poor girl stood there awkwardly, unaware of her mistake. My dreams of having a new best friend was ruined, I didn’t want such a laughing stock to sit beside me. I jeered and joined in the laughter; I was not really mature then.

After all the laughter, our teacher lectured us, and pointed to the seat beside me, motioning the girl to sit there. I snubbed her for the whole lesson, although she was constantly finding an opportunity to get me to talk to her. As the time go by, I started to dislike her even more, as I found her remarks to be nonsensical and impossible to comprehend.

I spent that whole day sulking, sore on the fact that I had someone whose vocabulary was very limited sitting beside me for the rest of the school term. It was not until a day later that I realize that Zi Yi was from Shanghai; thus not being able to converse well in English.

I started to feel guilty deep inside, as I deprived her of the chance to meet a friend here in Singapore. I decided I have to make amendments and not to judge Zi Yi by her limited use of the English language. I initiated a conversation the next day, and conversed with her in Chinese. She told me that she wanted to learn English very bad, and I took on the arduous task as being her English teacher.

After a few days, Zi Yi’s grasp of the language improved by leaps and bounds. No longer was she the girl who was laughed at; she contributed a lot in class discussions and was always praised by teachers. We were the best of friends and till now, I have learnt a valuable lesson, never to limit your perception of others by their limited English.