Charlie Sherburne - Mother Tongue

People who struggle with English vocabulary are often looked down upon and not seen as intelligent. However, the author's mother, despite her limited English proficiency, is actually very knowledgeable and understands complex things. This demonstrates that fluency and accent are not the only indicators of intelligence or understanding in a language. I think people who lack English vocabulary are looked down upon in the classroom, workplace and in general aren't viewed as intelligent or as highly as someone who speaks the language fluently or with no accent. In Mother Tongue it says, you should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. She reads the Forbes report, listens to the Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with ease, all kinds of things I can't begin to understand. This shows that intelligence and understanding of a language doesn't entirely matter in how it sounds when you speak it.