The United States is a country that has traditionally been the homeland of immigrants from all over the world. While English is this country's official language, I would argue that in today's multicultural era, we can no longer continue to view American English as one solid, flawless entity. Instead, following in the American tradition, we have to start thinking in terms of "Englishes," as the language continues to be shaped by the vast contributions that the immigrant population has made in learning to speak and write it. Rather than see this as a sign that the English language is in trouble, on the contrary I would say that English is probably one of the world's liveliest languages, as it continues to grow and evolve thanks to the numerous different Englishes that are spoken in America each day.
             In her essay "Mother Tongue," the novelist Amy Tan puts forth the idea that rather than there being one English that she employs as a writer, she in fact uses a number of different Englishes – both as a writer and as a human being. As a matter of fact, her very identity as a writer has been woven into her lifelong struggle to reconcile the English that she speaks at home with her mother – the "broken," Chinese-influenced English – with the fluid English she has been taught and appropriated for use in her scholarly and literary life.
             Tan's mother's English has often been a source of embarrassment for her, she admits in the essay. "I was ashamed of her English," she writes. "I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect."
             It is not just Tan's opinion that her mother's inability to speak English fluently makes her appear less intelligent, even less "important" in the eyes of the status quo. Tan supports her a...