Responses to "Mother Tongue"

Human life is inseparable from language. With language, we may exchange ideas and knowledge, while the language implies that behind which there is much rich culture and spirit of the times. Language is not only a sign of human civilization, but also can rid humanity of many separate individual modes. So that thousands of people who are thousand miles or thousand years from each other can be a group. And the subsequent people can continue to stand on the shoulders of our predecessors, thus becoming a giant.

Before Reading "Mother Tongue", I've never thought of that language can make such a big sense. Since I came to UD, I felt the big power of language too. My parents, my family and I are definitely born Chinese. We began to learn and speak Chinese since we were babies and didn't know English until we got into middle schools, so there is some inevitable so-called "Chinglish" in our English. And it is the Chinglish that makes us feel the sort of same obstacle as the mother in the article felt, like being upset, frustrated and unable to tell our points clearly.

However, languages are changing from generation to generation. Maybe our parents are not that good at English, but as the time is passing by, and the world is more open-minded, we can touch the really orthodox English. So we can use English more practically than our parents, though it's not our mother tougne.
Also, mother tougne is changing too. Now more and more teenagers are into creating our own new words. Like when we type, we use OMG to express Oh My God, and BTW for By The Way, and many other examples like these. And as Jiong was an ancient Chinese word, but now Chinese teenagers like to use Jiong to express the feeling of "rediculous" or "shocked" or "awkward". But if you say "Jiong" to your parents and use this to tell your opinion, they won't catch you at all.

The "Mother Tongue" gives us inspiration, letting us jumping out of the circle of "just live", and to learn and use the language from a historical perspective, understanding the language of the historical, social and cultural impact.