Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris

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Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work”- Stephen King. This quote tells us that every individual has a talent, but being successful in this talent can only be obtained through hard work. These wise words, are suitable in almost every goal the individual might have, also language learning. Most of us has experienced the process of learning a foreign language. Those who have, know that it can be a frustrating process. To be introduced to something completely incomprehensible to your ears, and knowing that this is what you eventually would have to master, is always a challenging task. You are placed in the middle of the language pool, as Sedaris refers to it, where you can chose to sink or swim. Motivation is your nutrition. Without it you will drown. In the essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” (2000) by David Sedaris, we are introduced to an American who has high hopes on mastering the French language. He moves to Paris, but immediately feels alienated and worse than all his classmates. Already at this early state he feels insecure in the language. But there is yet another, much bigger, obstacle on his way; his French teacher. She is described with animalistic undercurrents, and at one point compared directly with an animal. Not just any animal, but a wild animal looking for prey. “We didn't know it then, but the coming months would teach us what it was like to spend time in the presence of a wild animal, something completely unpredictable”. 1 Describing the teacher in such a way, makes the readers identify her as aggressive and hot-tempered. These exaggerated descriptions of reality are found throughout the text. This tone is one of David Sedaris ways of appealing to the readers, and thereby winning their vote. Another essential
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