Me Talk Pretty One Day Summary

Fear is one of the greatest motivators of all. In this particular essay from Sedaris’ book, he's having difficulty learning the French language after his move to Paris from the United States. His teacher, with a stone cold and belittling personality, only makes learning the language more frustrating. In “Me Talk Pretty One Day” David Sedaris shows the power of intimidation through the structure, quality, and the applicability of the information shared. This piece outlines a sequence of events and encounters in the class that led to the writer, David Sedaris’ motivation to learn the French language. The French teacher uses what many would consider very traditional means of motivation to teach her students the French language. The

Anyone who has ever been a student, which would be virtually anyone who would read this book, could recall a memory from school of a teacher who attempted and often succeeded in putting the fear of God in them; a teacher who made them too afraid to fail; a teacher who gave them the incentive to learn against all odds. Sometimes fear can establish a commonality between peers that may not have formed without it. “My only comfort was the knowledge that I was not alone. Huddled in the hallways and making the most of our pathetic French, my fellow students and I engaged in the sort of conversation commonly overhead in refugee camps. “Sometimes me cry alone at night”” (Sedaris 14). Sometimes we learn to confront our fears on our own. When we were very young our parents would worn us not to touch something that was hot. They may even have given this advice as we were reaching for the stove. “Don't touch that, its hot!” This is good advice and the high pitched scream may also have helped get our attention, but the permanent memory from the burn you received by the temptation to find out for yourself, worked even better. Fear and the memory of pain or anguish, teaches us to never touch something that is hot without protection. Humans learn from and are driven by fear; fear of pain, fear of failure, and fear of embarrassment. That isn't to say using fear as a means of motivation is the best way to teach a student. An intimidating teacher may also have a lot of failing students. Some students may avoid asking pertinent questions, some may drop out of the class, others may simply fail because they loss the confidence needed to