Response to "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan

"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan is such an educational and impressive article that calls for deep thinking about the differences between a same language used in formal and informal situations and by different generations of speakers. The article shows how different "Englishes" lead to different results by presenting some funny stories happened in a family, in which the mother spoke an informal English while her daughter spoke a formal and perfect English. It is quite common to see that a same language used by different generations, such as parents and children, can usually have people generate different perceptions of a same thing. Parents use their language, which has been used for about 40 years, to express their opinion while we children sometimes speak a language that can not be understandable or misunderstood because lots of things have changed after 40 years. Also, the languages used in formal and informal situations differ from each other in either the way it is spoken or the different words chosen.
My language spoken by parents can easily cause a generation gap between parents and children. Personally I prefer to stay with my peers rather than parents because I love the feeling of free talk. Nothing is forbidden to speak out when talking with peers while I often feel unatural when standing in front of parents. Parents are speaking a language which is quite serious and formal and it seems that the words they use are carefully selected. Sometimes a word can be defined with two totally different meanings by parents and children, so misunderstanding happens between the two generations.
Different languages used in formal and informal situations can surely cause different results. When talking with bosses or in some formal meetings, the language should be different from daily language and the way words are organized should be thought of before spoken out. Just like writing essays, some informal and folk words are better not to be used.
Generally, language is not always straight forward. There are a variety of languages used by different classes and in different situations. The point is that whether the language used is in the right spot.