"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

David’s audience could be people with a similar situation as David, whether that be being in a language class and not understanding it or going back to school as an older adult and feeling intimidated at first.

David’s context is, he has gone back to school at the age of forty-one in Paris, as an American,to deepen his knowledge of the French language. Before Covid-19 at this school we had foreign exchange students from Germany. I made friends with one of them named Naomi, sometimes it was hard for us to communicate because even though she understood English she did not always have the words to get her point across. Just like David mentions in his text.

The phrase “a true debutant” refers to someone who is a “new adult”; a person making a debut into whatever they’ve wandered into. Sedaris sets himself up here to be a newbie.

The tone begins with the first paragraph. It’s humble and comedic, with the author not quite understanding the words coming out of the teacher’s mouth and listing his perceptions with levity. At the end of the passage, the tone does become more uplifting while still being comedic.

In this part right here I feel David Sedaris is setting up his appeal to his audience. He shares details about himself that many can sympathize with. He is a student, which is already one thing, but he is also forty-one. An age I can imagine most would not want to be while still being in school as a student.

In this first statement the author establishes who the speaker is and his situation, and in doing this he also shows that this essay seems to be for anyone who may find themselves in a similar situation.

David Sedaris uses imagery when talking about the billboard of the stegosaurus in a canoe eating a sandwich.

Sedaris is setting the scene of the essay by explaining what he was doing and what he was issued. It is showing that he is a student, about to embark on his educational journey.

sedaris using a dull feeling intro to set the mood for the beginning of this piece. it doesn’t seem like he is eager to go back to collage.

Sedaris has moved from New York all the way to Paris, France so that he can learn the French language. This is a huge commitment for someone to do, especially because the only French he knows is that which he picked up in Normandy and in his month long French class in New York.

Moved to a foreign country that predominantly speaks a language you are less than fluent in? Goodness. That’s certainly a difficult situation to put yourself in, but I do hear that immersive learning is quite effective.

I think the main audience for this piece are those learning a new language, just like David was. Throughout the whole piece his main focus is on learning how to speak French fluently and what he did not know. Even the title of the piece has to do with speaking and speaking correctly

To want to move to a different country to learn the language seems difficult and stressful. I would just want to take a different language class in my school or hire a tutor. You would probably learn the language quicker and want to study as much as possible so then you can understand people though. It would also be like studying that language 24/7 since everyone is speaking it. It seems to be more effective in the long run but very stressful.

This sentence relates well to the theme that is state of mind. Moving in to Paris, the narrator comes in with the mindset of adapting to a new land. This shows a lot about his character.

It is important to realize the context of any piece or it can be confusing to learn from if you don’t understand the “whys.” David moved to Paris because he wanted to learn a new language. I feel that is he foundation of this story.

All the students in the school recounting their summers makes Sedaris feel alone at the school, as he has no companionship, not only due to his nationality and language, but also due to the age difference between himself and his peers. This sense of belonging will come later, as the students band together to make it through the class.

The quote “and on the first day of class I arrived early, watching as the returning students greeted one another in the school lobby.” David speaks that he watched the others around him greet each other. However, he did not know anyone. This can be a moment of fear for him. I can personally connect to this situation. When I was in the fourth grade I moved to a school in northern Indiana for 6 months. On my first day of school I was very nervous. I did not know anyone around me. But everyone around me knew each other. For me this was a haunting moment, which reading this piece brought back that feeling as a scared 10 year old. Thankfully someone reached out to me and invited me to join them for lunch. It is good to be kind to others, even if you may not know them. I will never forget that moment.

The author’s viewing of the other students in the classroom is surprised. He did not expect people of different nationalities to speak excellent French.

People can have a full grasp on a lot of things while not looking like they know these things. I know some people who are Scandinavian who are perfectly fluent in Spanish. People’s looks have absolutely nothing to do with their skills.

Sedaris says how the other students mastery of the language intimidates him because he has yet to achieve it.

Sedaris is speaking of something most people have gone through at least once, lack of confidence, specifically on the first day of school. He is stating something that most people can relate to and have experiences of their own to compare to.

He is also setting up for a major contradiction when these same confident French speakers express their struggles.

See how a reference can actually have multiple descriptors?

Ma and Pa Kettle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_and_Pa_Kettle?scrlybrkr=b3738e0d

The audience can be about anyone who finds this story interesting. This book would be good for someone who interested in learning french and would like an interesting story to go along with it.

Paragraph 4 describes the author’s feelings of mental distance from his peers. He relies on the audience’s experiences of alienation and embarrassment to sell that he feels incompetent. It also makes later scenes where everyone is struggling with the language more poignant, because there is no longer a divide between the author and his fellow students.

Sedaris is showing his vulnerability in this sentence by explaining the discomfort he has by being the oldest student there. He is showing how he is nervous for his new course and expressing why.

Sedaris makes a light hearted and humorous joke about him being older than all the other students within his class, comparing himself to ‘Pa Kettle backstage after a fashion show’.

Whenever I know I have to present something in front of my class or perform I get nervous as well

This is relatable because every time I start something new I get a little nervous.

Sometimes teachers do not wait for students to get a clear grasp on what they’re learning. They often leave others behind who end up never fully catching up. One bad grade on a quiz or test and they could fail the quarter, or even the semester.

I think it is very interesting here how David says you either “sink or swim”, because that is how life is. The comparison can likely be related with other things rather than just school. He could be saying this to show that to be able to swim you have to be successful in your everyday life or you could choose to sink, which would mean you would fail.

This thought process is commonly enforced by teachers and feared by students. Students who “sink” are viewed as failures and those who “swim” are seen as overachievers. It is battleground in a challenging class, not only with the material being taught, but also facing the opinions of others.

The usage of ‘sink or swim’ is a powerful representation of what any class, or life in general, is like. If individuals to not come up to par with what is needed of them to succeed they will indeed ‘sink’.

This definitely describes it similar to a battle or fight. You either give up and drown or you swim to shore by working hard to succeed within the class.

I can not imagine how difficult learning would be when you can only understand half of what your teacher is saying. He is taking a big risk by coming into live in this new place without knowing much of the language that people speak.

Despite his prior education and experience Sedaris has still found himself in a new environment that he was not completely prepared for. This can be a common experience for people taking a foreign language course that they are not previously knowledgeable in. The teachers will often talk and expect a response from the students who are somewhat clueless as to what is being said or what the teacher wants them to do.

I can relate to David struggle here when i first started Spanish I knew a few words and phases so i could guess as to what was happening

I can relate to this because of how my Spanish class mostly communicates in Spanish and sometimes I don’t know what they’re saying and feel lost.

I have a connection to this sentence of the excerpt because I have taken almost 4 years of Spanish class and there were definitely times where, in the beginning, I had no idea what was being said. Now that I have four years of experience I know understand some of the language, which will eventually happen for David Sedaris.

Here we find one of Sedaris’s first rhetorical choices, as he chooses to include the words of the teacher that had been unintelligible to him, and he signifies this with jumbled letters and italics. This choice helps to make this stand out as a piece of his tone, reiterating the idea that he is not so comfortable, and will face some struggles soon.

The author uses jumbled letters to represent words he is unable to understand. This choice not only sets a more comedic tone, but it allows the readers to understand at least slightly how difficult it was for him being unable to completely understand. This is a scenario not everyone has undergone, so this choice allows us to better relate to the story he is portraying.

Daniel’s use of unintelligible language does give the reader the same scene and feeling as Daniel felt within the class.

The decision here to convey words that Sedaris didn’t understand as pure unfiltered gibberish reflects really well how lost hearing those foreign words must’ve felt.

I relate directly to the author because I am take a French class. It can be quite confusing with the ways they articulate sentences and speak quickly.

That sigh is a little detail that says a lot about the teaching experience for this particular educator in the essay.

The garbled language here seems pretty important to the preparation for this course which means that this paragraph is situated to present Sedaris in early peril.

This comment stuck out to me. He is in the works of leaning how to speak french. Usually, the alphabet is the first thing you are taught when learning a language.

I’m not sure if this was intentional, but I find it amusing that he used a) and b) in this line. Sedaris has revealed that he doesn’t know the alphabet and then uses it in his response. If it was intentional it’s a pretty clever way of throwing it in there.

I think this is suppose to lighten the mood a little because he says everyone else is laughing but he does not even know how to say each letter of the alphabet.

This is where the humor can be brought up. No it isn’t funny but we can see how the author is trying to lay light on the situation of him not knowing the alphabet.

I really like this line, because it goes hand-in-hand with the feeling in the last paragraph. Seeing the letters but having no idea what’s being said.

This also goes along with the idea of being in a foreign place. We are all human, a yet another place on earth can be the most unfamiliar.

I find it ironic how Sedaris kind of just decided to jump into a whole new world the alphabet is the first thing u learn in school around age 6 he jokes with himself because it seem like it would be something basic he would need to know.

See how even an English word within the French course suggests a tone exhibited by the teacher?

It is a choice to label each person in the class by their name and nationality. It gives the true scope of how diverse the class is, and how, despite their different origins, face the similar struggle of learning a language. It’s not easy for anyone.

I like the fact that the professor makes them say their nationality because it’s a part of who we are, but I also don’t like it because sometimes people tend to base their opinion on what nationality you are. It can go both ways.

I find it interesting that his teacher use a question that requires some critical thinking to introduce yourself.

While Sedaris’s inclusion of this hyperbole, “front teeth the size of tombstones”, may not seem vital to the piece itself, it actually helps set the tone and establish a style for the rest of Sedaris’s piece. He includes the hyperbole because of the way it fits his style and aids the audience in maintaining attention throughout by employing such rhetorical choices.

This text is another instance of Sedaris having a humorous outlook on many situations. As seen here he makes a comparison with one of his fellow classmates having ‘tombstone’ sized teeth.

This line has a suggestion of sarcasm to it. Which could lean towards the fact that Sedaris is a humorist and could connect to the readers because everyone has atleast some form of sarcasm, or has heard sarcasm before.

This is one of the first true interactions the teacher is having with a student, and does not enter it gracefully. Instead, she is rather sarcastic and frank, making students nervous after her first impression with them.

Notice how Sedaris allows this scenario to play out without his own commentary. He merely reports the interaction and reaction to the moment.

Here Sedaris chooses to merely explain the interaction he observed, without commentary or bias. This is a rhetorical choice of Sedaris,allowing the audience and reader to come to their own belief and feelings about the teacher. Sedaris could have chosen to share his own views on the teacher, potentially describing how difficult it will be for him due to her personality and expectations. However, he does not do this, because he would have run the risk of losing audience members who may have felt that he sought out the pity and wanted the audience to feel bad for him. Instead, he simply notes the conversation, allows the reader to make their determination, ultimately resulting in many readers already being on the side of the students.

The teacher’s belittling of students is a interesting use of teaching. If I were to assume, I’d guess that she does it to assume authority and show who is in charge. She also does this to show that they have more to learn as well.

See how the right descriptive word is like what Mark Twain described as the difference “between lightning and a lightning bug?”

Just like on our first day of kindergarten, students are required to ‘tell a little about themselves’. No matter what age.

This line highlights the humor and sarcasm throughout the piece. These students have little knowledge of French so you can’t get a sense of the whole person. It adds humor to a moment when students are being ridiculed over things they like and dislike.

I found that David compared the simplicity of his classmates descriptions to something that children in early school might use to describe others. They obviously all have unique interests, but lack the nuance to describe or share them.

As someone who also wishes to learn multiple languages, this I feel is certainly a common fear among multi-linguists. Most people don’t want to feel stupid, but when you’re limited to only a small pool of words, you feel cheated. You know an entire language already. Even if you’re good at said language, you second-learnt will probably not be your strongest.

The same thing happens to me in Spanish when I’m writing I know what I want to write but I don’t know the words for what I’m trying to write in Spanish

This is the second time that the author described the Anna’s as Polish instead of an image description of what they look like. This is interesting because it makes me wonder the intention the author is trying to convey. Repetition? is it intentional?

I could relate to this part in the text because when I was in Spanish class I had many answers for the questions , but didn’t have the knowledge or vocabulary to answer the way I wanted to in Spanish.

David Sedaris’s use of verbiage to describe the disrespectful way his Professor addresses her students is interesting. Throughout the story one can see that the professor insults them in French, but it appears that students, such as David Sedaris, have insults of their own for her, French or not.

The teacher does not seem to be actually interested in what her students have to say, and more of how she can find all the loopholes in their words and tear open to publicly ridicule them.
perhaps to weed out the weak links and leave only the ones who are cut out for the class.

I found it interesting that Sedaris chose to describe the teacher like she is a predator waiting to strike on unsuspecting students. This seems to be another choice made to allow readers to relate back to the text. Setting up the teacher as a villain against the students allows readers to relate via teachers they dislike, since most have had at least one teacher they do not exactly mesh with.

The teacher is fully aware that the student did not mean to communicate her least favorite thing in the manner that she did. It simply came out incorrectly because the student did not have the vocabulary in the foreign language to say it correctly. Instead, the teacher used this slip up against the student; to ridicule and make fun of her.

The tone of the French teacher is very apparent to be cruel and demanding.

I think how David describes this part about trying to answer the question goes to show how much fear he felt at the time. I think that most students have gone through this experience David went through, trying to come up with an answer because they didn’t want to feel dumb or stupid for getting the question wrong.

This maybe a quick remark to show a quick peak into Sedaris’ home life and how he grew up. Maybe a strenuous relationship with his mother? With the knowledge that this is part of a larger book I assume this may come up again later.

This is sentence is helping set the tone of article from the authors perspective. It is showing the sense of urgency and worry presented as he is jotting down notes, as an attempt to try and have a successful interaction with the teacher.

Sedaris is limited in what he can share for he lacks the experience of the language. This reminds me of my daughter’s once writing that she liked to “bake cakes.” We don’t bake cakes often. When I asked her about her writing, she responded: “I couldn’t spell cookies.”

As someone who was in a french class before, I connect with his errors. It’s confusing to learn a new language, especially when the language had feminine and masculine meanings for the same word

Giving his best effort, Sedaris itemizes the words and phrases he thinks he knows. This kind of listing is for comic effect. The disconnect between the items themselves is in service to the humor intended within the piece.

Being that English is not my first language, I can understand their experience being called something but not understanding it. The teacher was quite rude insulting someone, but it hurts a little more when you do not know what it means and how it is used in the language.

Not only do these garbled words represent the lack of understanding, but I think they can also capture some of the anxiety in the moment. While David’s tone is very sarcastic, it’s very descriptive of the emotions felt.

What is being said? Is it good or bad? How do I respond to this?

Our own experiences within the classroom might help us to fill in these blanks.

As a rhetorical strategy, this essay works quietly off of PATHOS. If you feel badly for these students and for Sedaris, the essayist has done his job and achieved his purpose.

It is interesting that a person speaking another language could be directly offending you, but it could not possibly affect you if you do not understand exactly what they are saying.

Sedaris making fun of other languages(in this case, French) after being called out on making the mistake of assigning the wrong gender to an object that—among all the other objects in the French language, hold, I think is just his own embarrassment coming out through bashing the rules of the language that have been in place since forever.