David Sedaris’s brand of “deadpan” humor doesn’t draw attention to itself, but instead delivers jokes in the same tone as the rest of his essay. The result is that every line in this story, concerning such topics as insecurity and hostility, becomes equally capable of producing a humorous effect.
After reading “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” in a response of 150-200 words discuss how Sedaris infuses humor into such a serious topic as the difficulty (or even inability) of humans to communicate. Do you feel his humor is successful? Why or why not? Use specific details from the essay to support your opinions and conclusions.
In the story the main charcater moved to Paris in hope of learn a new langauge. Everyone in his class is a whole lot younger and speaks better French then him and he feels intimidated. I know this can be a very scary and embrassing experience. You dont know what anyone is sayin and your tryin so desperately to get to your classmates level of intellect. Everyone has experienced this a least once in there lifetime it doesnt have to be a entirely new language but rather a confusin class wher it seems the teacher is speakin gibberish. The fact that the author Sedaris can write about this event and in a rather humorous way is quite incrediable. I know for a fact that when Im in a scared or embrassed state of mind its hard for me to find anythin humorous.
ReplyDeleteI think he did a pretty successful job writin this short story and makin it as humorous as it is. Ther were some humorous parts and ther were some that really had me thinkin.
The main character, David Sedaris, moves to Paris in order to study French. He begins by explaining how he was nervous, and how he would be “expected to perform.” These nerves were not settled upon meeting his teacher, who was cruel and harsh to her students. They began the first class period by going through the French alphabet. As the letter of your name was covered, you would stand up, give “your name, nationality, occupation, and a brief list of things they liked and disliked.” Immediately the teacher began the torture of insulting them for their opinions and lack of perfection in the French language. I found many of her insults to be humorous such as “How very interesting. I thought that everyone loved the mosquito, but here, in front of all the world, you claim to detest them.” Many of her insults were not clear because she used words unknown to the reader, which I found entertaining, because you could plug in whatever you wanted too. I even found it quite hysterical when the teacher blatantly told Sedaris that she “really, really” hated him.
ReplyDeleteI did find this humor to be effective because it accomplished the goal of the author, while presenting it in an entertaining way to the audience. The part that I did not find amusing was the part in which he described how his teacher had deterred him from practicing the language, and how it had severed his confidence.
the narrator went from new york to paris thinking she had her french down pat and ready to go. Upon her arrival to her first class everyone seemed like they spoke perfect FRench. The teacher started talking french immediately and everyone seemed to understand but the narrator. When the teacher asks for the first 2 letters in the alphabet the narrator has no clue what it is. The teacher loves insulting the students and ask some of the students to stand up and ask what they like what they dislike and what they would change. All the teacher does is humilate them infront of everyone. Throughout the story the narrator meets all kinds of people from all over the world who speak all diffrent languages and cant reall communcate well with the narrator except in french. Also throughtout the story sedaris writes gibberish that doesent make sense at all it was pretty humorous all in all the way the teacher humilitaed the class and how no body could really understand the teacher
ReplyDeleteSedaris moved from New York to Paris when he was forty one so that he could learn French. He was enrolled in a class with a difficult teacher that had the odd teaching style of harshly insulting her students. The author uses a lot of humor in order to better convey her topic. Most of his humor was based on the students’ troubles to communicate with one another and their crazy teacher. The communication between the different students in the class with their completely broken French is one of the many humorous points in the essay. The author does this not only to be funny, but also to show the humorous encounters that novice speakers of a language tend to have. The dialogue is incomplete and almost sounds childish. The fact that college students sound childish is humorous. It is also humorous when the author puts gibberish in place of words that she does not understand the saying. This is also humorous. The author did a good job of incorporating humor into his writing.
ReplyDeleteSedaris' teacher is extremely mean. Sedaris jokes about this often. His jokes are humorous because the teacher insults him and even said "I hate you I really, really hate you." That is something that a teacher should never say to a student. Sedaris uses humor to make the class less painful to be in. I thought it was hilarious when he said "everyday in your class is like having a cesarean section." Honestly, when I read that I burst out laughing. That teacher was a total *****, and when Sedaris said that to his teacher you know he felt good for saying what everyone else wanted to say to the evil woman. That woman was very ignorant to the students, especially to the students who could speak French perfectly. One moment in the story I felt was confusing was when Sedaris said that the vending machines should have raw meat in them. I mean come on, that's just crazy.
ReplyDeleteSedaris only took a one month class before moving to France. He was much older than the others that he was going to school with. Besides the age being a factor, all the other students could speak french much more fluently. The teacher was very mean to him and all the students. Day in and day out the teacher was very rude with her negative comments and questions to the students, especially towards Sedaris. He over came the trash talk from the teacher by trying to laugh inside himself about it. When he laughed he always realized he did not understand anything in full of the sentences and words said to him. Eventually at the end of the essay, Sedaris understand one of those insulting lines that his teacher said to him. And at that moment he realized he caught on to the French language and responded very quickly with wanting to talk more to her.
ReplyDeleteSedaris is not sure what to make of the teacher. the way she walks in and starts with full emersion of the lanuage is confusing and he is not even sure if he can comprehend what i being sai. the teacher is a very harsh woman and the students have trouble communicating with each other. The humor used by the author shows what she is trying to get across about how people speak different languages and can not really speak well in french.Half the time the teacher speaks the author has no clue what she is saying and puts in random letters to make a word to point out that h can barely understand even though he did take a class on it before going to Paris
ReplyDeleteWhen sedaris moved to Paris to study French, his thoughts upon arrival were a lot different than what actually happened. The teacher for his French class had a weird sense of humor. Insulting the students in front of everyone, the French teacher humiliates them by poking fun at their improper French. Most of the students are much younger than him but much more fluent in French. He finds the humor in his teacher and his situation made it more funny.
ReplyDeleteOne way in which I think Sedaris gets humor across in a serious story is when he is making fun of how other languages use geneder in identifing objects after getting yelled at by the teacher because he didn't know the typewriter's "gender". He pokes fun by telling how we would not say "Lady Crack Pipe", or "Good Sir Dishrag"
ReplyDeleteSedaris moved to Paris to study french. His first encounter with the teacher from hell didn't play out as he expected. The class first had to attempt to recite the alphabet. Which Sedaris claims to know but has forgotten. Its funny that these college kids could not even remember the french alphabet. Sedaris even thought it was amusing. The teacher then asked the class to stand up and say your name, nationality, and what you like/don't like. As the teachers bashed every single person and treated them like fiver year olds amused me. Such as saying to Yugoslav "oh yea? And do you love your little war?" I do believe that this humor did help the students learn the language very well. Being publicly humiliated seemed to help the students on striving to learn the language, so that they can get the "good job" from there strict teacher.
ReplyDeleteI had a longer response, but this website deleted it and I'm not re-typing all that I wrote the first time.
ReplyDeleteDavid Sedaris' humor was established early in the story when he would just jumble numerous letters to be symbolic of a French word that he did not understand. Sedaris provided multiple circumstances where he became confused due to his teachers use of the language. The teacher was a harsh, hard-nosed woman who often did things to make a point or to put the fear of being unpredictable intp her students. David Sedaris was discouraged plenty of times by his teacher and the pace and rhythym that she spoke with. Sedaris was scared to speak in public. For the sake of saving his embarrassment, he pretended to be deaf because he figured that everything he could say, would be incorrect. The title" Me Talk Pretty One Day" immediately shows that there is a language barrier between two people. Sedaris becomes enlightened near the end of the essay because he had understood his teacher telling him that she hated him, basically. This statement made Sedaris motivated to learn and try to understand the French language.
ReplyDeleteSedaris moves from new york to paris in hopes of learning french. When he arrives in paris he finds his teacher awful and all the people in his class far younger and better students. His teacher aims to strike fear in to her students. His humor is apparent in many circumstances and is what brings him through many circumstances. His teacher becomes unbearable and shows a distinct almost hatred for sedaris. From the title you can tell the distinct language barries that exist between different people and how someones lack of care can make it impossible to work on it.
ReplyDeleteJust as we talked about in class with Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue”, there are many different dialects of languages that people speak in. Sedaris talks about he, himself moving to Paris in order to perfect his French. He was nervous before he got to his first class, because he was a forty one year old surrounded by a bunch of college students, and he did not know French as well as some of the other students. Little did he know that it would only get worse. His teacher spoke in nothing but French, and openly criticized and made fun of all the students and their lack of French speaking ability. Sedaris uses this criticism in making his writing very humorous. The comments alone to the students are humorous, but the broken language and gibberish makes it even more amusing. The way Sedaris uses these things to make his writing funny makes the essay much easier to read and relate to.
ReplyDeleteThe short story Me Talk Pretty by David Sedaris was about a psychotic French teacher who was awful to her students. She was very fluent in many languages and abused her students in every way she could. She asked students questions in class and then she demeaned them in everything they said. The main character in the short story moved to France in hopes of learning the language. Many of the students had much more experience than he and the teacher made them feel foolish.
ReplyDeleteOn the first day the teacher wanted to know if the class knew the French alphabet. David realized he knew what the letters looked like but didn’t know the pronunciation. His language was very limited and he knew only half of what she was saying. By the end of the class not only did he understand everything she was saying but he also could reply, although not with correct pronunciation. What David realized was that the teacher, although continually insulting her students, immersed the class in language and spoke whatever she thought and truly knew when they understood because then they became offended. The humor was that in insulting she taught.
Andrew Ward
Sedaris moves to Paris to learn French. At forty one years old surrounded by college kids this is humorous in its self. Then when the teacher asks them what the love and he says some inanimate objects and messes up the gender. He talks about how stupid he thinks it is that these things even have a gender added to them, they couldn’t live up to what there sex implied. So yes I feel his humor is successful because he shows how ridiculous the teacher is and kind of makes fun of her. At the same time he shows his fear of her and the language. This is humorous in itself because he becomes so paranoid that he is afraid to answer the phone or act deaf when someone asked him a question. So his struggle to communicate period is funny.
ReplyDeleteThe crazy french teacher that ridicules the students every move is actually the creator of the humor in "Me Talk Pretty One Day", by David Sedaris. As the teacher seems to do nothing but put the students down and make the students feel as if they are losing what they have learned. The teacher is actually making the students without realizing it try harder,study harder, and actually learn quicker. The humor in this is when the student while being ridiculed by the teacher finally realizes for the first time that he actually can understand everything the teacher is saying to him. When the same ridicule used to make him feel stupid or put him down, this time when he realizes he can understand the teacher, the ridicule makes him feel happy and lifts his spirits now that he realizes he had been learing all along. A story like this reminds you that no matter what your first impressions are of someone or something you have to always remember there can be a reason or benifit beyond what you can see at the moment that can benefit you later on.
ReplyDeleteSedaris infused humor in the essay by making the teacher seem evil even in the first day, but she actually is not. Everyone has different ways to teach, and this teacher teaches you by putting you down. Going to Paris to study French can tell a person, like the teacher, you’re a curious hard working individual if you are willing to travel hundreds of miles to learn another language. With that said, it is safe to assume that you would be curious if someone insulted you in another language, you would want to know what they said, but this isn’t the kind of person you can talk back at, not without knowing what to say. That makes you want to learn the language to be able to defend yourself, making her insulting teaching method a successful one.
ReplyDeleteSedaris moved to Paris in attempt to learn to speak more fluent French. At times he was even afraid to pick up the phone because he knew that he wasn't going to be able to communicate that well. The students were nice and he really got along with them. They would try to encourage Sedaris by telling him that he would get better at speaking fluent French. His teacher was very harsh criticizing everyone about their nationality and the way they talked. I think Sedaris used a lot of humor in the story to make his difficult situation with his teacher better in a way. The teacher was described as an disrespectful, evil, and harsh but that's just the way that teacher taught her students. At the end of the story we realize how that way of teaching really helped Sedaris understand French more and also understand everything his teacher said to him. Yes, I do think this humor is successful because while going through all the criticism, he still managed to understand the French language a lot better.
ReplyDeleteThe story is about Sedaris experience in learning French. When he was forty-one he goes to France where he is surrounded by a bunch of college students and a very critical French teacher. Just like in mothers Tounge the students speak French in a broken way. The students talk almost like cavemen due to their lack of knowledge in French.
ReplyDeleteThe way Sedaris writes his story is quite humorous because it gives the point of view of what he is hearing from the teacher which is clear English then a bunch of gibberish. Also when the students talk to one another they say things like "me like you" which is hilarious. It's like listening to a little kid trying to talk to an adult.
In the end he starts to get a grip of the French language and survives the harangue he receives from the French teacher. It was quite humorous and entertaining making this story a very successful story.
David Sedaris, the protagonist in "Me Talk Pretty One Day", moves to Paris, France. He is in the hopes to learn the native language there, French. Everyone in his language class is much younger than herself and on an entirely different intellectual level. It is a very timid feeling to be the worst in the room at something. Especially when each student would be put on the spot to be introduced to the class and degraded by the teacher for their imperfections. For the author to have the aptitude to exemplify his harrassment in a humorous and almost hysterical way is quite inspiring to me. I myself have been in such a situation similar to David's and have yet to discover any humor in it at all.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice one drop of humor from this story. So, I would think it conveys its message of "deadpan" humor very well. Moving to France for school, in his late forties, David Sedaris tries to adapt to his new surroundings and learn a new language. He tries to add his strange humor to his embarrassments and he succeeds in a monotone way. I feel bad for him because one of David's teachers despises David. He doesn't even seem to do anything to the teacher and the teacher despises him. It goes to show that other countries hate America and Americans.
ReplyDeleteSedaris came into the class not knowing what’s to come for him or what to get out of the teacher. The way teacher walks in and starts with full speech of the language Sedaris is new to is confusing him and is not even sure if how he can understand what’s being said in front and how to put out the information of what’s been said. The teacher seems to have no care for her students at all and leaves the students having trouble communicating with each other in the language. The humor used by the author shows what she is trying to teach about how people speak different languages and cannot really speak well in French. Half the time the teacher speaks the author has no clue of what she is saying and puts in random letters to make a word to point out. Sedaris also is determined to stay in the class to show that he can beat the teacher of what she’s doing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the story, Sedaris had a rough time with the teacher. Not only did she give him a hard time but also gave her students a hard time also. Teacher is basically being a bitch the whole time she talks to her students in French asking them questions and them not knowing how to handle it so they tart freaking out because their nervous. The humor in the story is used by the author when the teacher is talking in French to her students. They just listen to her and the probably just like, "what the hell are you saying". At the end Sedaris begins to understand a little bit.
ReplyDeleteDavid Sedaris, the main character in “Me Talk Pretty One Day", moves to Paris, France in order to learn a new language (French). But he is also 41 and starting to take a language class that is an experienced course. In this class he sees that he is the oldest person there and that compared to some of the students he does not have any knowlegde of french, like he thought he did. His french teacher was a mean women who never had anything positive to say about her students. She degraded them more then taught them at first it seemed, by the end though David began to understand the shrewd comments she was saying to him which would usually dishearten people, because of what she was saying. But, this just showed him that he was learning. The humor is that he sucked at french and his teacher knew it and critized him in french about it, through this though he was able to comprehend french.
ReplyDeleteSedaris begins the story with he, himself moving to Paris hoping to perfect his French. He was a nervous wreck before class, due to the fact that he's twice the age of any of the other students in his class. He learned very quickly that he wasn't as fluent in French as the others. To his horror, the teacher only spoke in French, and loved to make fun of the students who were weak in the language and couldn't understand her. This criticism adds humor to Sedaris' writing. Sedaris embraces his terrible French which only makes it that more easy for his readers to relate to him and come to understand what it is he's going through.
ReplyDeleteSedaris moves from New York to Paris in hopes of learning French. He gets there and realizes that he has a horrible teacher. He is also in a class with smarter people that were far younger than him. his teacher only spoke in French which came as a real hardship to him. His teacher would make fun of him because of his lack of knowledge on how to speak the language. This criticism was actually constructive criticism because he began to understand the language more as the teacher made fun of him.
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