When Amy Tan talks about different Englishes, she means that practically every nation has its approach to teaching or learning English where both learners and teachers are limited by nation-specific factors. There may be additional societal or personal challenges averting a person from learning English the way it is supposed to be. Therefore, Tan talks about different Englishes because she is willing to outline the concept of a language that is ultimately dependent on how the person speaking it views it. For Tan, different Englishes ranged from how her mother spoke to her to the perceived literary English that Tan herself tried to apply when trying her fiction-writing skills for the first time. The third instance of Tan’s English was the second language that she spoke without having to worry about mistakes or utilizing words and constructions that were too complex and unnecessary, to say the least.
When it comes to my personal Englishes, I feel like there are three essential variations of this language for me: (a) the one that I am using to study, (b) the one that I am using to chat online, and (c) the one that I am using when talking to my hometown friends or family members. I do not think these three versions of English differ significantly from one another, but the idea should be to cherish the unique identificatory traits one may utilize to highlight the usage of a specific version of English. As a society, we should realize that different cultural concepts are giving rise to numerous novel versions of English that cannot be banned, revised, or eradicated. This has to be the main reason why English should not be taught or learned as an obsolete system where stagnation has taken over the progress – instead, it should be crucial to hop on the bandwagon of innovation and do whatever it takes to make your own English unique in a certain way.