Answer:
The hospital encounter where her mother was 'refused' to be given a diagnosis about her CT Scan and instead told to take another test, for they 'lost' the result shows the treatment meted out to non-native English speakers. But when the daughter came into the discourse, with her perfectly spoken English, the doctors 'miraculously' agreed to everything and cleared up the 'problem' as if there had never been an issue in the first place.
Explanation:
In her essay "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan describes how the use of the English language can specify the way one gets treated. providing instances of when she uses the English language as compared to how her mother used it, she presents the different reactions and interactions they both experienced and how it shows the treatments they get from native English speakers.
One such incident was when her mother had gone to the hospital as a follow-up about a CT Scan that she'd taken. With her broken English, she tried her best to try to get the doctors and nurses to tell her about her condition for "her husband and son had both died of brain tumors" and she was eager to know about her own health. But despite her efforts, she was told that the scan was lost and that she had to come back another time for a new test.
But when she adamantly refused to leave the hospital and made them talk to her daughter who spoke perfect English, the doctors' perception immediately changed. They even suggested that "the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake."
This was an outcome only after they had communicated with someone who spoke fluent and perfect English, as compared to the mother's 'faulty' English. And this encounter shows how people tend to 'judge' a non-native English speaker based on her use of the language and not think in a rational or humane way.
