In Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” there is no real “correct” language. Her mother and her teachers told her the “correct” language was English and at the University tried to beat the accent out of them. But she goes on to show – in indirect manners – that it is not the “correct” one for her.
“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan claims that “limited” “broken” and other such adjectives feel wrong to use to describe her mother’s English. For her both this intimate form of language and grammatically correct English are “correct” – natural.
I think the point of both these essays is that there is no such thing as “correct” language, just the different forms of language that you use with different people. There is something about language that ties people together; it is a commonality of communication. People may say that “correct” language is when it is grammatically correct. But many of us may write correctly, but when we speak it is incomplete sentences, slang, cultural phrases, and other variations. Others may say it is “politically correct” but that is a communist term and so I refuse to believe that is “correct” language.
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