On The Intolerance of Non-Standard American Englishes
My Mother’s English Last spring, I read Mother Tongue, an essay novelist Amy Tan had written about her mother’s English. Tan’s mother, who had immigrated to the U.S., held an “expressive command” of English. But her mother’s English was also grammatically imperfect. Because of this, she was ignored, mistreated by workers in department stores, banks,…