Amy Tan

Language comprehension has nothing to do with intelligence. The sooner people realize this, the sooner we'll be more comfortable with the melting pot we live in. If someone doesn't speak a language you understand, or even if it's a broken version of it, there's no indication of intelligence level. Interpretation is where the "broken" language is created. I understood everything Tan's mother was communicating about Du Yusong. I know people who are intolerant of other people's shortfalls when it comes to English. "If they are going to live here, they need to speak our language." Well, that poses an interesting question. What is our language? We have different languages for regions in America, let alone all of the different countries in the world. The ability to communicate an internal thought is where "linguistic intelligence" (I just made that term up) lies. Figure out how to make people understand what you are saying. That's the point of this class, right? Effective verbal picture painting. There will never be a day that we settle on one global language, at least not in my lifetime, but for now we have to be more tolerant. This tolerance is going to result in better communication, and less segregation between cultures.