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Me Talk Pretty One Day

In: English and Literature

Submitted By josephine3033
Words 931
Pages 4
Me talk pretty one day “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is an essay written by David Sedaris in the year of 2005. David Sedaris is an American Grammy Award-nominated humourist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. The theme of the essay is the attitude to learning a foreign language. It is an expository text about the writer’s personal experiences.
In his essay, David Sedaris writes about his experiences on learning French at an international school in Paris. With a language course that endured for only one month as the only previous experience, the 41-year old writer moves to Paris to learn the language. The essay is about his experiences at the school and with his very strict French teacher. This strict teacher tears David Sedaris down and takes all courage and self-esteem out of him because he, along with all his new classmates, can’t speak fluent French. He becomes frightened of saying something wrong, so he decides to stop doing things that requires speaking, such as going to the bank, asking directions and ordering coffee or food. He is closed off from the society.
The tone in the text is informal and casual, which is supported by the way the subject has been tackled: David Sedaris shares his personal experiences. The text is focused on his personality from the very beginning: page 1, line 1 “At the age of forty one, I am returning to school…”. The personal style of writing characterizes the essay genre. The essay is written in colloquial language and the chosen vocabulary is also informal and simple: page 1, line 15 “nerve-raking”; page 1, line 17 “rattle off”, etc.
David Sedaris uses humour and sarcasm in the text, which makes it funnier and lighter to read. He makes use of figurative language and exaggerations for describing his experiences: page 1, line 33 “…front teeth the size of tombstones”; page 1, line 16 “it’s everyone into the language pool, sink or swim”. This helps the reader develop more lifelike pictures of the situations. The writer creates an ironic distance to the unpleasant experiences by adding a humorous tone. As an example, Sedaris uses lists of meaningless letters when he repeats the French words he doesn’t understand: page 3, line 90 “After being singled out as a lazy kfdtinvfm…”.
The informal style of writing makes it easier for the reader to identify with the writer and the humorous tone of the text maintains the reader’s interest. The ironic distance and the use of figurative language emphasize the absurd and unpleasant in the French teacher’s way of teaching.
David Sedaris’ attitude to learning French changes throughout the story. He starts out being very positive and curious, but after he, on his first day, gets brought down by his teacher, who beats every part of self-esteem out of him, he becomes so scared of the language and of saying something wrong that he starts focusing on his mistakes instead of learning: page 3, 101 “Before beginning school, there’d been no shutting me up, but now I was convinced that everything I said was wrong”. He becomes so frightened that he doesn’t want to talk at all: page 3, line 100 “…these things were out of the question, as they involved having to speak”.
It is described in the text that the students stand together against their disagreeable teacher. They are all in the same position: page 3, line 111 “there was no sense of competition”. They are constantly scared and on the alert of any new linguistic attack by the teacher. As a reader, you get the sense that the students find themselves in a war zone: page 2, line 84 “We soon learned to dodge chalk and protect our heads and stomachs whenever she approached us with a question”. The students also share their experiences and feelings with each other: page 3, line 108 “Sometime me cry alone at night”, so at least they are in the war zone together.
At the end of the essay, David Sedaris suddenly, for the first time since arriving in France, understands every word of the teacher’s sentence. Even though the sentence was an insult to him, he feels much rewarded: page 3, line 124 “I settled back, bathing in the subtle beauty of each new curse and insult”. He knows it is just a small step but it generates his curiosity and his lust for learning. The essay has a positive ending, where his anxiety of speaking disappears: page 3, line 128 “Talk me more, you, plus, please, plus”.
This essay is, in my opinion, both entertaining and thought-provoking. The fact that David Sedaris uses humour and colloquial language makes it highly identifiable and entertaining. But there is also a point to it. “Me Talk Pretty One Day” shows how important it is to get positive feedback from one’s teacher. It is a simple point, but nevertheless, a very important point in everyday-life. This moral applies many other things in life. In general, it is always important to get positive feedback on the things you do in life and this essay is an example of that. It is a necessity to build up self-confidence and comfort, so that you will get the courage to use the language and not be afraid of making mistakes. I believe that, the inappropriate behaviour the French teacher shows helps him to try harder to learn French, just to show the French teacher what he’s capable of. I don’t think that it was reflected enough in his way of thinking.

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