Mother Tongue.” Compare the role of the “mother tongue” (the writer’s or writer’s family’s original language other than English) as portrayed in Amy Tan’s essay of that same name and in Chang-rae Lee’s “Mute in an English-Only World.” Try to find a way to focus your comparison, maybe ordering it in a certain way and also looking to see if you can draw any significant conclusions (or even surmises). If you like, bring in something from your personal experience that causes you to relate to one of the writers—whether because in your experience something was similar or because something wasn’t quite the same, and this struck you. This might help you to focus as well. Consider beginning by making a similarities/differences chart, like this one, below, and then see if you find a focus. I find it can be interesting to address similarities and then focus on significant differences or vice versa. Similarities Differences Both are children of mothers who have a hard time speaking English. Amy Tan is Chinese-American; Chang-rae Lee is Korean-American. Both grew up helping their mothers with English. Tan is female; Lee is male. Another similarity Another difference Keep going…! Keep going…!