How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
You ask me what I mean
by saying I have lost my tongue. (1-2)
We're guessing that the "you" in this poem has never heard of "tongue" being used to represent a language. Sure, you could say "I lost my language," but would it have the same effect as saying "I've lost my tongue"?
Quote #2
[…] what would you do
if you had two tongues in your mouth,
and lost the first one, the mother tongue,
and could not really know the other,
the foreign tongue. (3-7)
By the speaker's reckoning, knowing two languages is the worst of both worlds. Firstly, you have to make do with a foreign language that you can never truly "know," or connect with. What's worse, though, is that using the foreign language puts the native language at risk of being forgotten. What do you make of that concern? Is she right or not?
Quote #3
You could not use them both together
even if you thought that way. (8-9)
It's got to be confusing—thinking in one language, talking in another. At times, those wires cross and what results is something of a language mash-up. Tex-Mex, or Spanglish, is a good example of this, where words and phrases from both English and Spanish are used together. Apparently, though, that's not an option for our speaker.