Pathos in "Mother Tongue"

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan appeals to pathos to describe her and her mother’s pain in the difficulty of communicating with English in an American society. Tan is used to speaking broken English with her mother, who is not as “Americanized” as her daughter. Tan is a well-spoken writer of literature, and she claims she has no mastery of the English language whatsoever, when in fact she does. She describes several situations her and her mother had to go through where communication was in an issue, and they make the audience feel sorry for both of them.
Tan catches herself speaking broken English to her mother, though she speaks the language quite eloquently and fluently to her English colleagues when discussing literature. This communication gap is herd on her and her mother, especially when she accidentally speaks more “advanced” to her mom, who misunderstands her. Her mother does not realize the break in “good” and “bad” English, but can tell the two are different. These trials and hardships in language between Amy Tan, her mother, and society bring out an emotional response in the reader.