Consider Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue" as well as the video you watched about code-switching. Identify and evaluate two examples of code-switching in Tan's essay. How does this code-switching reflect Tan's complex upbringing, cultural background, and life in American society?

Two examples of code-switching are when Tan speaks "incorrect" or "broken" English to her mom in the first personal anecdote (when she tells her mom not to buy something), and when Tan realizes that the English she's using for a literary event is strange to use in front of her mother.

This code-switching reflects Tan's complex upbringing and Asian-American background, because, unlike many people who don't come from immigrant families or who don't speak several languages, she was acutely aware of certain sociolinguistic systems from an early age. For example, although Tan's mother's English makes sense to her, Tan would have to talk for her mother in several situations in order to be understood, to be taken more seriously, or even to be treated fairly.