Difficulties in using your first and second language

If you speak more than one language, describe any difficulties you experienced learning and using your second language (both languages?). Have any of your experiences been similar to Tan’s and/or Kingston's? What are some of the difficulties you encountered when translating from one language to another? Post your answers on the forum at http://languageculture.forumsplace.com/message-5.html



Click play to listen

"In this 1989 interview with Don Swaim, Maxine Hong Kingston, author of China Men, Woman Warrior, and The Fifth Book of Peace loves the English language. She talks about how any language can be translated into English and any non-translating word will become incorporated into the English language. This is why English is almost a universal world language. Kingston explains how she will think in Chinese about what she wants to write and then she will write it in English." From Wiredforbooks.com website

Maxine Hong Kingston After the Fire
Miel Alegre and Dave Weich, Powells.com


Click play to listen

"Author of The Bonesetter's Daughter, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, and Moon Lady, Amy Tan talks with Don Swaim about growing up as the child of immigrants, working with disabled children, participating in a writers' group, and "becoming Chinese" on her first visit to China in this 1989 interview." From Wiredforbooks.com website

Amy Tan's Biography

BBC's article on Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter

Note:

The above audio links are from Wiredforbooks.com. They are linked here for educational purposes only. Taiwanese students in Aiden Yeh's Language and Culture class will be using them as part of their in-class discussion and activities on Kingston's 'Misery of Silence' and Tan's "Mother Tongue".