Me talk pretty one day

Learning a new foreign language can be difficult and might have its complications. It takes time and a lot of patience if you want to learn a new foreign language. Travelling to a foreign country and learning the language by a native citizen is one way to learn it. This is the way the author learns it and in Me talk pretty one day we read about his experiences with a native teacher.
David Sedaris tells the story of how he tried to learn French and therefore travelled to Paris, France. Going back to school was strange but still it was exciting. He sees himself as a debutant to school, one going back to school again. He looks back at the college life and compares himself with a youngster. “After paying my tuition fee, I was issued a student ID, which allows me a discounted entry fee at movie theaters, puppet shows, and Festyland, a far flung amusement park that advertises with billboards picturing a cartoon stegosaurus sitting in a canoe and eating what appears to be a ham sandwich.” (p.1 ll.2-5) He looks positively at his options as a student and in a way he is regressing. He tries to remember all the good things about being a student. Sedaris uses a lot of metaphors throughout the text. He does this to make a point and to describe the point he is making more precisely and understandably. His teacher is a mean woman and has unusual learning methods. To describe these methods he uses the metaphor: “That’s the way they do it here – it’s everybody into the language pool, sink or swim.” (p.1 ll. 16-17) The teacher expects every student to perform from day one. This is hard for a team of new French learning foreign students whose only skills in French were general, everyday words. He uses a metaphor to describe the fear and nervousness of a young student whose opinion was criticized and put to shame. “Her rabbity mouth huffed for breath, and she stared down at her lap as though the appropriate comeback were stitched somewhere alongside the zipper of her slacks.” (p.1 ll.39-40) This quote describes the fear the teacher makes one of the students feel. These metaphors create a picture in the reader’s head and by doing this; the readers can more easily understand it. This is also the intention by Sedaris. Sedaris makes it very clear from the beginning with his tone that this is a funny and ironic text. All through his narrative he is very ironic in his tone. When he describes people talking he uses direct speaking and this is a good example of the irony shown in the text, he replaces words spoken by the teacher with a kind of gibberish; The French teacher speaks and says this: “If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow? Everyone? Good, we shall begin.”(p.1 ll.21-22) It is a very funny way he chooses to express the ignorance of his French. His teacher is overwhelming and she anticipates that they understand French well. Sedaris uses this technique so he can convey the different levels of comprehension of the French language. To overcome the French attack and school he also makes his everyday ironic and funny. He compares the French language of one of his classmates with Playmate of the Month data sheet. (p.2 l.2). Me talk pretty one day have two main themes. The first of them is determination. This is the word, which describes the theme best. Sedaris describes his determination throughout his narrative. He describes what he gets from it, which is a positive outcome, but he still put forward the harshness in his work. The second theme would be to make the best of what you got. He has a teacher, who is pure evil, but instead of quitting the course he just keeps working harder and harder till he one day understands what she tells him. He does not give up just because she is being rude to him. His determination and ability to make the best of what he got, gets him through a hard time and makes it better and educational. He and the other students did not believe that any of them would ever improve. A lot of time went and he had a hard time seeing things on the bright side. Even though he did not understand every word in the beginning he kept studying and because of his awful French teacher he decided to study even harder and because of this he one day realizes that he understood every word she said to him. This positive response of his work makes it easy to understand what he wants to tell the reader. I believe that Sedaris’ purpose with the text is to motivate college students who may be experiencing a difficult course with a less than pleasant teacher so that he may inspire students to achieve all their goals. He may seem negative about his teacher and course but in the ending he tells us everything about his achievement and therefore he seems really positive. The last sentence he writes supports this idea of him motivating other students. “The world opened up, and it was with great joy that I responded, “I know what the thing that you speak exact now. Talk me more, you, plus, please, plus.”(p.3 ll. 127-128) Even though he does not speak perfect French we still get an idea of what he has achieved. We have followed him through his entire development.