World Lit. Advanced Comp. equates to the class I so despised my Sophomore year of High School. My teacher, Mrs. Sterner, embodies the most stern English teacher I hope to ever have. I knew going into this class it would present difficulty, but I did not imagined how much work it would entail. I took this class thinking it qualified as the logical class to take, and maybe I would gain some important knowledge or skills, but mainly because I thought I needed it as a prerequisite for Composition I and II. However, one of these assumptions proved incorrect.
The class received our first assignment on the first day of school. Mrs. Sterner told the class we needed to write a “short” essay, which must have no less than 500 words, that she expected
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It entailed a very long, drawn out process that often caused me a lot of stress, and took up a lot of my time outside of class. However, a few days after school had ended for the year I checked my grade on Turnitin.com and, surprisingly, found I got a 99% on my essay. I felt a certain pride in myself that I had received such a high grade from a teacher who grades so harshly. While I could not say I liked Mrs. Sterner, and I disagreed with many of her teaching practices, I do think I gained a lot of writing and analyzing skills from her class that have better prepared me for Composition I and II, and college. Even though I did not need to take World Lit to enroll in Composition I and II.
In his essay "Me Talk Pretty One Day," David Sedaris talks about his unpleasant experience with his French teacher, and how it all ended up working out for the best. Sedaris adds humor to his piece, especially in the forms of hyperbole, understatement, sarcasm, and irony. For example, Sedaris used hyperboles often in his essay, such as “The teacher's reaction led me to believe that these mistakes were capital crimes in the country of France.” (p.g. 342) This exaggeration shows some of the ridiculousness of his situation, and additionally makes his situation more real, adding to the humor of the piece as a
where the author wants to become proficient in speaking French. He studies language instructions only to end up being embarrassed by the teacher. This results to him being more culturally confused. David Sedaris finds humor in situations that are humiliating.
“Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay” by Marie Foley demonstrates how a five paragraph essay formula disturbs the thought process of the students and limits what they can write. A five paragraph essay is an introduction with the main idea, with three supporting topics showing the relationship to the main idea, and a conclusion summarizing the entire essay. Foley argues that this formula forces students to fill in the blank and meet a certain a word limit. She noted that this formula was intended for teachers in the education system to teach an overcrowded class how to write. While it is beneficial for the first-time students learning how to write. In the long run, this standard destroys any free style writing, new connections between a topic,
This essay “me talk pretty one day “by David Sedaris was about a forty year old men moves to Paris from new York and returning to school to learn French. This all about him telling his audience his struggles he had with the class in was in and his horrible teacher he had. During the class David feels less of person and embarrassed and feels the other students were getting the same treatment. When he first attended the class he was lost and confused , he could hear the conversations and thought they was talking weird and couldn't keep up with them. The first day in the classp people had to get up and tell something about themselves and the teacher began talking and he understanding what she saying to them and once he found out he was scared
In France, Sedaris decided to take on the challenge of learning French. His teacher took a disliking of him and wasn't afraid to express her real feelings towards him. “We soon learned to dodge chalk and protect our heads and stomachs whenever she approached us with a question….’I hate you,’ she said to me one afternoon. Her English was flawless. ‘I really, really hate you.’ Call me sensitive, but I couldn't help but take it personally.” (Sedaris 171) Sedaris creates a tone of satire by using hyperbole. The teacher is ridiculous and takes her hate to an extreme by going out of her way to tell David she hates him every day. Not only does Sedaris feel left out because he can not pick up French, but he is the only student she has an extreme hate towards. He feels as if he does not belong anywhere he goes. He was quickly convinced that everything he said was wrong because of the utter disrespect from his teacher. This added to his lack of self confidence but, he makes a serious situation into a light hearted tone by using an hyperbole. Sedaris’ low self esteem began at an extremely young age. He has had a lisp his whole life and was forced to go to therapy. “At school where every teacher was a potential spy, I tried to avoid an S sound whenever possible….After a few weeks of what she called ‘endless pestering’ and what I called ‘repeated badgering,’ my mother bought me a pocket thesaurus which provided me with s free alternatives to just about everything.” (Sedaris 11) David Sedaris referred to his teachers as “agents” and “spies” to add a humorous side of something he disliked. He did everything in his power to avoid using S which frustrated his teachers, but gave the audience a laugh. Sedaris was extremely insecure about his lisp so he felt the need to go to the extremes to cover up his differences. The pressure from his speech therapist and teacher was so extreme that he became
Me talk pretty one day is a piece written by David Sedaris, over-viewing his journey to learn a new language. Through-out his story he details his time in France and the hardships and rewards that emanate from his French class. This articles theme of following through with your commitments helps dissipate fear of failure because its shows you how to overcome your anxieties, how to be your best and details the joy of accomplishment.
David Sedaris, the author of “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, tried diligently to make his essay funny. However, most of his humor fell flat in comparison to that of Dave Barry’s “Lost in the Kitchen.” This comes from someone who finds most things overly comical. Many of his attempts at humor lacked appeal because they provided no commonality to the reader’s own experiences. I have never gone to France or even left the United States for that matter, especially not to study a foreign language. Although, I do have experience with confused men performing simple household tasks such as cutting up vegetables. Many readers do as well which allowed a better connection to the essay.
Sedaris gives an example of the torment he witnessed, “the teacher poked a shy Korean woman in the eyelid with a freshly sharpened pencil.” He explained, “learning French was a lot like joining a gang in that it involves a long and intensive period of hazing.” With the teacher belittling the students hope was fading of learning French. “Over time, it became impossible to believe that any of us would ever improve.”
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.
Perhaps the most effective literary tool which Sedaris employs is imagery. Sedaris sets the stage for the reader by painting a vivid mental picture of the French class in which the story takes place. Sedaris describes the physical attributes “… a pouty, plump Moroccan woman…” (Sedaris 415) as well personality “By the end of her first day, she'd raised her hand so many times, her shoulder had given out. “ (Sedaris 415) of fellow students. Sedaris provides details to the reader about the textbook and class discussion.
Uncertainty and perplexity are major characteristics of life. The ideal of not knowing or not knowing how to do a certain task that others can do burdens one’s mind every single day. In chapters “See You Again Yesterday” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, David Sedaris implements hyperboles and connotative diction to convey his frustration and confusion of learning and grasping the French culture and language.
In preparation for the Advanced Placement Literature and Composition exam, high school students must read many kinds of literature during the year-long course to familiarize themselves with different time periods, movements, philosophies, and genres. Advanced Placement students must learn to think critically, and be ready to find, analyze, and express literary connections through written analysis. The biggest challenge of teaching and learning Advanced Placement English is the difficulty covering the entire scope of literature in two semesters. Twentieth century literature often gets neglected. The pace of the curriculum can also limit the creativity of lesson planning and evaluation. Many teachers rely heavily on lecture, discussion, and a traditional analysis paper.
...dless of what I am trying to accomplish. I feel that I am much better now, in persuading someone through my writings; which would definitely come in handy in the future. The responsibility I have gained during this experience is incredible and has taught me to be a much more organized person. During this semester I was taught a process of how to write a paper and organize it. I found that all of these responsibilities have made me realize that I could definitely take the next step forward in my academic career. Each new experience I involve myself in has made me continue to grow and constantly learn something new. I am someone who has never really enjoyed English classes in the past and I when I registered for English 101 I only saw it as a requirement to graduate but I really did enjoy this English course and I know that it was something that was worthwhile for me.
What's interesting about the book is the way it circles around the loss of language and the question of Sedaris' own facility with writing (Brown). The importance of that sentence shows that he is not afraid for someone to question is facility. The reason that facility is very big point in the book “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is because Sedaris likes to write about stuff that really happened to him and people question if that was really the place he was in when he was in school. The book “Me Talk Pretty One Day” could be about him and if so he had an experience that readers like to keep reading about, for example, Despite the recurrent theme of inarticulate communication that permeates this collection, it's likely the reader will be the only one at a loss for words at its conclusion (Brown). The words “the reader will be the only one at loss of words” (Brown) show that when reading one the book the reader will be so focused and at a standstill because thrilling
s for the future. From new words to ancient literature, you have guided us through it all. One important assignment you instruct us to complete is the WOD. This is extremely important in the real world. As a result, the WOD’s teach us new vocabulary and demonstrates how to use it in a sentence. Also, you taught us about the different types of figurative language. For example, analogies, similes, and metaphors are some of them. This allows us to have improved writing which causes extra detail, often comparing a detail to another. Furthermore, you taught the class about the elements of literature; the plot, conflict, theme, characters, and setting. This allows us to understand the different parts of a story and analyze different passages. The
English class in high school used to be one of the classes I dreaded the most. From discussions to numerous essays that we were required to participate in, I disliked it all. Don’t get me wrong, the subject of English itself is something that I enjoy--the teachers however are a different story. I would have to say that my first semester of college English was a major turning point for my love-hate relationship of this class. Over these few months I have grown as a writer and learned new and useful skills for the future. I appreciate the fact that my professor was not overly judgmental and off-putting while starting out in this class. This allowed me to ease into my first semester of college and taught me to grow as a writer.