Mother Tongue

Why did Tan's teachers encourage her to choose a career in math or science instead of writing? What caused them to miscalculate Tan's ability and potential in English? What point is Tan making with this story? How does this point fit in with the larger argument of "Mother Tongue"?

Tan's teachers encouraged her to choose a career in math or science instead of writing because she was foreign and her English was described as "broken." In the tests Tan was confused by the way they grouped things. The correct answer was simply judgement compared to math which was set to one answer. The Chinese are known to have majors in engineering, mainly because of this scenario. Tan may speak differently, but she understands language. She even stated how she thinks about it every day. She isn't an author; she is a story teller. What she sees is the images words create; her stories are broad, deep, and full of beauty. They're almost like pictures. This fits with the title "Mother Tongue" because to Tan the fact that her mother speaks different or "broken" doesn't matter to her, because she understands the language either way it's being spoken.