Golish 1 Angela Golish Kade Perry English 1010 22 April 2014 Rhetorical Analysis David Sedaris, a former apartment

cleaner turned humor writer, recounts his experience of moving to France to learn French through the popular immersion method Me Talk Pretty One Day. In his essay-turned-chapter in his novel of the same name, he uses a little logos and some ethos to persuade his readers, but ultimately he relies heavily on Pathos in order to share his experience with his audience and successfully make his readers feel the fear, horror, and eventual success of learning a language from a difficult teacher. Believing himself armed with the previous experience of having spent summers in Normandy (where they speak French) and having taken a month-long class in New York City before setting out for France, the 41 year old author tells of how the first day of class was nervewracking for him. He knew hed be expected to jump in and start speaking the language right away, since that is the style of teaching they use in France, and how the other students all sounded perfectly fluent to him as he observed them in the lobby before class. During the essay he uses several jumbled collections of letters to indicate words he did not understand as the teacher spoke fluently in front of the class amidst the English translation of what he did understand as she rattled off instructions. He speaks of the Professors interaction with other students as they were made to stand up and introduce themselves and speak of their interests using only the little French they knew, and how she ridiculed each and every one of them for their responses. Watching the other students be berated he anxiously awaited his turn to speak, and was met with the same treatment. When that first torturous day of class ended, he was relieved in his thinking that the worst was behind him, yet time would show how that belief was very wrong.

Golish 2 Throughout the course of the class the teacher continued to treat the students horribly, and though she forced them to speak nothing but French she would often use any of her other five fluently-spoken language to disparage them and their intelligence. However, through the many months of mockery-induced fear, the author stuck with it and eventually could understand every word of her insults, thus achieving his goal of being well on his way to successfully learning the language Me Talk Pretty One Day was first published through the New York Times in 1999 and later published as a chapter in the his book of the same title. The fact that this was published first through the New York Times shows that the intended audience would be upper middle class to higher class, educated, and perhaps more liberal individuals due to the common readership of that newspaper. Writing towards people who have been through some kind of schooling will also help the audience to relate to his work as they have been to school themselves, and addressing people who would most likely understand his type of humor-his fellow New Yorkers. While this text does not use much Logos, due the fact that it is a humorous retelling and not just the facts arranged clearly, there is some logic presented in the fact that he learned the language simply by listening and not giving up. As he wraps up his saga with the teacher telling him Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section in French, and how it suddenly dawned on him that for the first time since he had been in France he could now understand every word that someone was saying. Now each insult and vile word felt beautiful since he could finally make them all out. Ethos is presented as he presents his background of learning the language and he takes great point in telling us that his age is 41. Stating so clearly his years is used as a method of speaking to his credibility. He wants it known that he is not just some teenager experiencing learning for the first time, but a man who is going back to school with previous life/learning experience behind him.

Golish 3 Perhaps the most used appeal in this situation is Pathos, as most of what he is explaining plays upon the readers emotional reliability. All through this essay, the author uses the narrative format, organizing this text in the story format in order to provide his information in an entertaining manner. With David Sedaris being a satirical/humor writer, this method proves a much more effective way of getting the tale across in a way that readers can not only enjoy, but relate to on a personal level. To effectively relate his story in such a manner, he portrays his teacher as a mean person who is always spewing angry insults such as I hate you in his native language just to be sure he would understand her. He also tells of the Korean student who was poked in the eye with a freshly sharpened pencil, which may or may not have been accidental but she wasnt apologizing anyway. He shares his experience where the stress of this in-class trauma carried over so far into everyday life he was afraid to speak (in French) to anyone, even going so far as to find himself wondering why they dont sell meat in vending machines so hed never have to interact with anyone at all. These claims are put forth in an effort to help you feel sorry for the subjects of her torment-one of those subjects being the author himself. David Sedaris narrative successfully manages to pull the audience into his story, drawing out their own understanding of what this situation would be like for them, and horrifying readers with the tales of the mistreatment this teacher used as her method while still being able to wrap up with the satisfaction he felt when it was all said and done. This essay is an amusing example that sticking with something in spite of adverse circumstances will eventually yield what matters-the experience and knowledge one will gain along the way.