Jared M. Lawandales

Fullsail University English Composition Assignment: Me Talk Pretty One Day Discussion

Two descriptions stood out to me from the Sedaris story Me Talk Pretty One Day. The first came from “the billboard for the amusement park” where the author would receive discounted admission with his student id. The second relates to how his teacher left him with such a great feeling of insecurity that he began to seclude himself from their society.

I can see the billboard for this amusement park. Similar to the canoe riding stegosaurus described by Sedaris, I see several of the signs from the annual family vacations of my childhood. Most of these signs depicted some theme park mascot committed to a seemingly silly and erroneous task. The second description was significant for no particular reason other than the fact that he did an amazing job at painting the visual image of a gentleman walking through a town square, contemplating and questioning himself before walking up to each store, only to turn away, ashamed of his own perceived shortcomings.

The use of English, broken English, and scrambled characters was hardly comic, in my opinion. The humor completely eluded me, as I was left wondering why this confusion was necessary. The first sentence containing randomly jumbled characters required several examinations before I finally realized the author’s intent. I believe that there are several different ways Sedaris could have conveyed his confusion in a less “confusing”, more concise and understandable fashion.

The failures were well represented by the teacher’s snide comments to the student’s minor imperfections. In addition to this were feelings of insufficiency, felt by the author due to these rude comments. The triumphs also seem to have eluded me, because, although I can tell there is some sort of success or personal triumph described at the end of this story, no matter how many times I read it, I do not understand whatever message he is trying to convey. I feel as if this essay carries a negative tone because, while there seemed to be this personal victory in the conclusion, the story’s main focus was the several negative aspects of this situation.

The attitude in the classroom is one of fear and discomfort. This process begins with his early feelings of “nerve-racking” uncertainty about the “everybody into the language pool, sink or swim” expectations of the school. It then builds with the constant dialogue between the teacher and students who were belittled, little by little by the teacher. Finally, this process concludes with Sedaris’ heightened discomfort explored later when he says, “My fear and discomfort crept beyond the borders of the classroom.” His classmates were presented one at a time, from a cornucopia of ethnic and language backgrounds.

I cannot really relate to this story at all. As I have never traveled abroad, I have never experienced anything like this. I have also had few difficulties with learning subjects in the past. As far as making a personal association with the feelings described in this story, my only relation is that of the discomfort and possibly fear of uncertainty associated with a lack of understanding.

~ Jared Lawandales

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