The 1% and several individuals who are part of the middle class discriminate against the lower class by ignoring them because their language is not understandable. In the essay "Mother Tongue", Tan describes the challenges her mother faced with being part of a minority group and not being able to speak English fluently in American society. Because Tan's mother is a Chinese immigrant who doesn't speak English fluently, the majority "pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they didn't hear her." Even when her mother insisted on asking for compassion and understanding, “they didn't seem to have any sympathy” as she couldn't speak English properly and was belittled in the community. In contrast to the middle and upper class, lower class individuals do not speak English fluently, but the “broken” and “fractured” non-standard English that they learned from their parents. Individuals who belong to the lowest class level of society do not have the opportunity to receive an education that allows them to become fluent in the English language. Due to the fact that they are not financially stable, lower class individuals do not receive the same level of education as their peers, which leads them to speak grammatically incorrectly and have difficulty within the context.