MOTHER TONGUE
How is the power of the original tongue shown? What other imagery is used to describe the tongue ?What is the poet trying to say in this poem? Can you relate this poem to your experiences?
The power of the mother tongue is presented in the poem as the poet claims this tongues is able to take over and tie ‘the other tongue in knots’ to ultimately push the foreign tongue aside. The word choice used to describe the very graphic scene allows the audience to stress on the lines were the superiority of the mother tongue is supported
2) Other forms of imagery are used to further explain this concept such as when our mother tongue is metaphorically grown into a flower, starting as a shoot that ‘grows longer, grows moist and grows strong veins’ over time. This could be a way to explain how our mother tongue can naturally evolve or develop over time subconsciously.
3) I think that poet is trying to say in this poem that those who have opted to learn foreign languages may have feel that they have gradually caused them to endanger their ability to speak their native tongues fluently or just generally feel a disconnection with their own cultures. But aside thinking this, our mother tongue will always unknowingly live beside to a small extent.
4)4) I can’t really relate my experiences to this poem because even though I have lived overseas for a majority of my life I have been able to find ways to maintain a basic understanding of how to communicate in my mother tongue (Indonesian). This is because I live in an area where the locals share similar Malay culture to my own despite living abroad and I often can visit my hometown the distance between the two countries are a small comparing to others. Aside this, the balance of speaking my mother tongue and my foreign tongue (English) is uneven because of the westernised lifestyle I live but I can convey my thoughts and continue my learning with the help of my parents.
2) Other forms of imagery are used to further explain this concept such as when our mother tongue is metaphorically grown into a flower, starting as a shoot that ‘grows longer, grows moist and grows strong veins’ over time. This could be a way to explain how our mother tongue can naturally evolve or develop over time subconsciously.
3) I think that poet is trying to say in this poem that those who have opted to learn foreign languages may have feel that they have gradually caused them to endanger their ability to speak their native tongues fluently or just generally feel a disconnection with their own cultures. But aside thinking this, our mother tongue will always unknowingly live beside to a small extent.
4)4) I can’t really relate my experiences to this poem because even though I have lived overseas for a majority of my life I have been able to find ways to maintain a basic understanding of how to communicate in my mother tongue (Indonesian). This is because I live in an area where the locals share similar Malay culture to my own despite living abroad and I often can visit my hometown the distance between the two countries are a small comparing to others. Aside this, the balance of speaking my mother tongue and my foreign tongue (English) is uneven because of the westernised lifestyle I live but I can convey my thoughts and continue my learning with the help of my parents.