Me Talk Pretty One Day Book Report

“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” by David Sedaris is a clever reminiscent essay that revealed three important lessons. First and foremost, life needs people who can exhibit perseverance in any situation like David Sedaris and other classmates proved throughout their challenging French class. This essay demonstrated that education is meant for everyone regardless of their age. David was forty years when he decided to go to college, which for some may seem old. Ultimately, I realized that a teacher played a key role in ensuring that Sedaris and his classmates became fluent French speakers. During our assignment, I identified with the author’s claim, “the end justifies the means” (Sedaris, 2002). David Sedaris wrote this essay in attempt to show that in any process, the results matter more than the challenges experienced. The teacher was harsh throughout his development, but the most important thing is that the class managed to learn the French language at the end. I continue to believe in my early claim because the author tried to demonstrate that success comes for those who endure the obstacles that may come their way.

Furthermore, after David’s nerve-racking experience on the first day of school, he describes the school system saying, “that’s the way they do it here – it’s everybody into the language pool, sink or swim” (1). After David attends class and realizes that his classmates are in the same position as him, the author uses a pool to symbolize the similarity between David and the others. The sink or swim part showcases how important it is for David to be able to communicate in French, as it is a do-or-die situation. It is symbolic of the major conflict in the story, as David’s success can go in both ways. He can learn the language, and hence swim, or he can fail to do so, and sink. Lastly, at the end of the story, symbolism is used again to showcase David’s confidence and joy. After David was finally able to understand the teacher while getting yelled at, he says “the teacher continued her diatribe and I settle back, bathing in the subtle beauty of each new curse and insult” (3). Throughout the story, the pool is used to represent David’s insecurities and to highlight the major conflict, whereas now he appears to bath or

David’s first impression of his teacher was: She’s mean and very sarcastic with her responses. At that point he knew he was in trouble. So, he

Both June Jordan and David Sedaris describe their experiences with linguistic diversity. Jordan's June Jordan "Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan" is an essay on the importance of teaching and acknowledging Black English. According to Jordan, "Black English is not exactly a linguistic buffalo," meaning that the language is not rare or extinct (160). This is true even if Black English develops within a world that is "alien and hostile to us," (160). David Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is the author's recollection of his experience learning French in France. Like Jordan's depiction of Standard English, Sedaris's description of formal French shows how language can be rigid and unforgiving. However much they share in common, these two essays on linguistic diversity are completely different. Sedaris's is purely entertaining; Jordan's is also informative. Jordan imbues her essay with political and social consciousness, which is absent from Sedaris's writing. Sedaris is willing to temporarily "surrender his own voice," something that Jordan warns against (160). The main differences between Jordan's and Sedaris's essays can be classified into three categories: content, style, and purpose or theme.

Their seemingly fluent abilities in the French language, and their youth, brought up insecurities and began to eat away at his self confidence. In addition, many had previously attended this school together and had already established relationships. These things were starting to erode his self-esteem, and he was again reminded of his age. At 41 years of age, one would think he had it all together, but for him this was not the case. Although he had spent a month taking a French class the previous year, and had traveled to Northern France, he started to become humbled by how much he did not know (Sedaris, 1999). He started to feel pressure even before he met his instructor for the first time.

In the essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, David Sedaris, American humorist and writer, recounts the hysterical/hilarious story about his experience while learning French in France at the age of 41. Sedaris develops his story providing a detailed narrative of what it is to be a foreign student in a French school taught by a very impatient and not so encouraging French teacher. Using comic exaggeration, Sedaris makes his essay not only quirky and bold; but interestingly appealing because it is an entertaining portrayal of his learnings. 4TH sentence: From his hilarious, somewhat painful, everyday experiences learning a new language, the intended audience of this essay is anyone who have learned, or is learning, a foreign language and can relate to the struggles and difficulties that go along with this experience. ADD THESIS STATEMENT HERE?

In the essay he achieves a comic effect due to the appeal of Ethos. Throughout the essay, “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” some would think Sedaris would not learn French with the constant criticism of his teacher, but towards the end he had a breakthrough and understood everything his teacher said. He ends up accomplishing his goals because he was determined and had a hard work ethic. Sedaris tries to explain through his experiences that sometimes when learning a new language it is important to have to learn in different ways rather than the traditional ways. He had to think outside of the box in order to fully

On the other hand, Nguyen talks of the language difficulties that she experienced being a Vietnamese in the United States. At first, she is enrolled to a school far from home as it offers bilingual education to help her integrate with the system of learning. She works hard to raise her academic performance with hopes of falling in favor with the teacher. However, as the teacher knows her Vietnamese origin, she manifests her stereotype on Nguyen’s comprehension in literature readings. For instance, while it was her turn to read, the teacher would interrupt her making sentiments such as “you are reading too fast….things she did not do to other students” (Nguyen, 35). She also faces a “school-constructed identity” together with her sister with all sorts of jibes thrown against them. As Vollmer puts it, “such assumptions affect the interpretations made of student behavior and school

In “Me Talk Pretty One Day” an essay written by David Sedaris, the author shares his moving to France and returning to school as an adult. The essay is informal and written in everyday language. The writer’s purpose is to inspire anyone, who encounter any obstacles that they may combat in life. However, the author’s tone reveals the attitude he has toward life, by illustrates the fear he faces of returning to school and the challenges he faces, his fear of failure, and overcoming his fear.

Many popular theories of second language acquisition have been analyzed throughout history. The socialization of L2 learners, their present emotional state that is present at time of acquisition, as well as the comprehensible input and output with the use of scaffolding play a major role in second language acquisition. Let us also not forget the importance of written expression as well as reading comprehension with these L2 learners. Each play a role in language development. However, I believe that in acquiring a language, one must use a variety of techniques that work together to create a balance within the learning environment. Furthermore, all L2 learners learn differently and so a variety of resources will need to be used based on the ability of each student. There are many theories that have been developed by highly qualified experts in the field on linguistics. However, I will address those areas that I agree with as I present my personal theories on second language acquisition.

In David Sedairs' Short story, Me Talk Pretty One Day, the main point of this story is no matter where you’re from, or where you are in life, when learning a new language for the first time it can be an intimidating journey for anyone. I think for David and his classmates this was frightening, and exciting, but also exhilarating. No one likes to be subject to the dreadful words and actions that the teacher exhibited, while not fully understanding what was going on or being said in the class. I can imagine how scary this could be for a student in a new country.

The article “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is written by David Sedaris. This article is about getting over your fears of learning a new language and how it will take time to learn. The main key points of this article are getting over your fears of learning a new language, the first day of class, and understanding the language. My goal is to provide a simplified, more detailed essay of the article about in a way the audience would enjoy. I want the audience to feel confident about attending their first foreign class. I agree that there is nothing to fear in attending their first foreign class and it would take time get used to the language. But I want to further substantiate the author's claim with my own experience and elaborate on how learning

On the first day of class, after he was done checking in, he sat down to observe his classmates returning from their summer vacations. Initially, he walked in full of confidence and his head held high. However, that quickly changed when he heard his classmates speak French, and the feeling of intimidation washed over him like waves hitting the beach, “at my age, a reasonable person should have completed his sentence in the prison of the nervous and insecure . . . my fears have not vanished, rather, they have multiplied with age” (Sedaris, 1999, 1). For being a forty-one-year-old man, he thought these feelings of insecurity and fear in the classroom would have ended long ago. If he thought things could not get worse, he was mistaken. The teacher walked in, rattled off commands to the class, and then asked them to recite the alphabet. In that moment, he knew he was in trouble, “I’ve spent time in Normandy, and I took a monthlong French class in New York. I am not completely in the dark, yet I only understood half of what she said” (Sedaris, 1999, 1) and, despite the exposure he already had, he was still unable to understand everything the teacher was saying.

With the rise of globalisation, English has become the Lingua Franca as a tool to communicate among people from different countries in numerous situations and areas (Nikolov & Djigunovic, 2006, p.234). Therefore, people in various countries are closely connected economically, politically and culturally and many people are required to acquire a foreign language. As a result, there have been many researches and evidence on whether age has a great impact on second language acquisition. This essay will illustrate neurological, phonological and affective factors and the Critical Period Hypothesis as evidence that children have advantages in second language acquisition. In contrast, cognitive theories will be stated to illustrate how adult learners have advantages in many second learning strategies (Comrie & Corbett, 2009, p.12). Thirdly, it will suggest two second language acquisition methods inspired by children?s first language learning, which are Total physical Response and Natural Approach, because despite their limitations, they contain useful lessons from children?s first language acquisition such as raising interest and lowering learners? stress. Finally, this essay will assert that considering neurological, phonological and affective evidence and witnessing children?s natural and effortless language acquisition, overall children surpass adults in second language acquisition. Therefore, it is wise to elect useful factors from

Wilkins (1972) carried out an analysis of the communicative meanings a language learner needs to understand and express, and developed the idea of learning notions and functions. In line with the fundamentals of the Communicative Approach, this Unit of Work intends to make students aware of the importance of the foreign language as a mechanism for expression of emotions and communicative