Education and Communication

People use their languages to communicate, negotiate and express their feelings with others. Languages of individuals are elements of culture that contribute to every aspect of their

relationships. People represent and idetify themselves through their languages and find what they will recreate themsleves through their languages. For people who can speak other than their first languages, they choose their languages to convey their thoughts or feelings depending on audiences who they communicate and negotiate. People rememeber what language to use from their histories or memories, which are their abilities to remember things from the past. Ў°Monkey BridgeЎ± by Lan Cao, Ў°Mother TongueЎ± by Amy Tan, and Ў°Lost in TranslationЎ± by Eva Hoffman show how they negotiate with their uses of language and determine the boundaries of memory and history. Perception of language gives ability to identify individual, to determine the boundaries of the memory and the history, and to make sense of identity that will recreate. Therefore, people should care their history along with their memory to communicate and to negotiate with others using proper language.

People are able to find their identities when they speak a language. Because people tend to communicate with others, they use right language that conveys their way of thinking. People recognize what they truly are and where they stand for when they speak a language. According to Ў°Monkey BridgeЎ±, Lan Cao depicts how languages can be connected with history and how it can distinguish peopleЎЇs identities. Mai shows her position as an "outsider with inside information" (212) affords her some critical distance from both American depiction of the Vietnamese and the traditions and habits of Little Saigon. Mai finds herself by generational division and cultural distance offers the mother some comfort that her family karma may finally be escaped. From Ў°Mother TongueЎ±, Amy Tan quotes, Ў°I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, Ў°This is Mrs. TanЎ±.Ў±(411) Because her mother speaks broken English that limits explaining her situation, Amy has to pretend to be like her and to speak perfect English in front of indocile people. Pretending to be like Mrs. Tan, Amy learns what to do in certain situations and it helps to form her identity. According to Ў°Lost in TranslationЎ±, Eva Hoffman describes how she finds herself in new society. After she tells a joke to new friends who do not understand it at all, she says, Ў°Laughter is the lightning rod of play, the eroticism of conversation; for now, IЎЇve lost the ability to make the sparks fly.Ў±(417) To her, joking is another language. She cannot use a joke that she used before in her new society. Due to the misfit, she realizes her identity that does not fit to new culture. Languages are not only used for communication, but they also help people to find their identities and characteristics in which they stand for in their everyday lives.

Memory and history lead people to negotiate with their different uses of language. People use certain language with certain people. For instance, I use polite language to older people; however, I use broken language with my friends, such as grammatically incorrect sentences, inappropriate pronunciation, and so on. The speaker should speak in right language so that the audience can understand it. From Ў°Monkey BridgeЎ±, the mother uses more stinging language to her daughter than language she uses in her diary. Mai says, Ў°I never knew she had a whole separate language of her own until after she died.Ў± (255) Because the mother does not want Mai to know the truth, the history of her family, she has to use language with prudence. She negotiates her uses of language along with her memory and history. From Ў°Mother TongueЎ±, The daughter, Amy Tan says to her mother Ў°Not waste money that way.Ў±(410) Even though she can speak English fluently, she speaks broken English with her mother. Because of her memory, the broken language is used as just another language of intimacy. It is not just about the language itself, but also about the cultural background, history and heritage. Eva Hoffman depicts the lost of translation according to her diary. She says, Ў°The Diary is about me and not about me at all.Ў±(419) Because she uses English, the public language, to write her diary, the diary cannot be written what she wanted to be like and be indicated who she truly is. She negotiates with new audiences, people who use public language, and she tries to translate as it is into her diary by her memory and history of new society. People negotiate their conflicts with their memories of personal history and public history. Memory can give people a clue what to do in certain circumstances depending on who the audiences are. The boundaries of memory and history give people an idea