Me Talk Pretty One Day Analysis: Overcoming Language Barriers

Introduction to “Me Talk Pretty One Day”

The essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris is an essay about overcoming a difficult task while learning something new and never giving up on the main goal. The author describes the learning environment, personal feelings, and difficulty with the teacher. By revisiting the essay, I am reassured that the goal of this essay was to entertain and give the reader the background of what it was like to learn French dealing with a difficult teacher.

The author then speaks on how the teacher treated all the students without empathy, but they were able to overcome the obstacle.

Struggles in the Classroom

The author began to believe he had the language understood. During the first day of class, the author was completely confused. The author stated how the language was the same but pronounced differently. “I realized, while laughing, that I myself did not know the alphabet. They’re the same, but they’re pronounced differently.” Each word stated in the classroom sounded very foreign to him, and he couldn’t comprehend half of the information the teacher gave. “I’m not completely in the dark, yet I understood only half of what this teacher was saying.”

The Importance of Empathy

The author showed much confusion and didn’t completely understand. He showed emotion by providing the way he felt when his instructor would show no interest in himself or his peers due to a lack of understanding and communication. The author and his peers shared their feelings of difficulty trying to learn the language together. While learning the new language, the professor pushed them to analyze more than just learning the language, giving the students a reason to not just understand but comprehend the language.

A Lesson in Perseverance

The author had prior studying in this language, and he thought he’d had it mastered. At the beginning of the article, the artist also informed us that he was going back to school “at the age of forty-one.” Sedaris stated that “over time, it became impossible to believe that any of us would ever improve.” In all, he was able to accomplish his goal and began to be fluent in learning a new language. Learning a foreign language can be a challenging thing to do, and it is very important that it is learned the correct way. Being in the right learning environment having a great trustworthy teacher, can be a huge challenge. I believe you have to think about the way you act and approach your students. If you don’t, you will harm them before you are able to help them.

Summing up my audience, it would be someone who is going through a terrible time understanding something new or even battling with learning a new language. It could also be for someone who may need to find humor in a difficult situation. I believe that all readers would get the gist even if it takes more than once to completely understand the point of the story. The goal the author wanted to achieve was to get readers to understand that things may be difficult in the beginning, but it’s always worth a try.

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