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Sara Hare
Submitted to Irene Peterson
English 1010-008
July 17, 2014

More than Words
At some point or another most people will have the unfortunate experience with a teacher who
makes it their personal mission in life to belittle their students, making them feel stupid. While other
teachers focus their efforts on enriching their students experiences, these specific individuals choose,
rather, to focus on how much their students dont know, and constantly point out their flaws publicly to
the class. Learning environments like this are not only embarrassing but can cripple a students ability to
learn. In the short essay Me Talk Pretty One Day, author David Sedaris recounts his experience with
such a teacher while he was living in Paris and attempting to better learn how to speak French. Despite
the abuse taken from his instructor, Sedaris manages to come out on top with only a few emotional
scars.
Sedaris begins the article by describing how at age forty-one, going back to school, especially in
a foreign country, is very intimidating and nerve racking. As if being in a classroom full of foreign
beauties who seem to already speak French fairly well wasnt intimidating enough, his teacher turns out
to be a woman with a superiority complex who enjoys personally insulting her students. Sedaris hopes
the Instructors ridiculing is a stunt to make the weak at heart drop out after the first class, but soon
realizes that this is how every class session would be. Throughout the duration of the classes the
teachers offenses range from personal insults to actual physical assault. Even with Sedaris compulsive
four hour a night study sessions, he develops a severe paranoia and almost becomes too self-conscious
to even attempt to speak French outside the classroom. Only at the very end of the classes when the
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teacher verbally assaults him is Sedaris absolutely delighted by the fact that he understood every word
she has said rather than humiliated by her outburst. Sedaris rejoices at the fact that he actually learned
something from the class, in spite of how terrible his teacher was.
Within the article, Sedaris uses rhetorical concepts to connect and identify with his readers.
Using each of the four concepts; ethos, pathos, logos and kairos, he connects with his audience first on
separate levels, and then later brings the individual ideas together as a whole. This type of writing not
only lets the reader identify with the author on an emotional level, but builds credibility and sets the
tone of the entire article.
Pathos, or emotion appeal, was the most obvious of the rhetorical concepts used by Sedaris. It
was easy to identify with the emotions and the embarrassment that Sedaris experienced due to his
French teacher, since many people have had a similar experience. It is easy to relate on a personal level
to the author, and his experience makes him more likeable and makes his claim more valid in the mind
of the reader. Sedaris has multiple unpleasant encounters with his teacher throughout the article, and it
is impossible not to feel empathy for what he is going through. Although this article is intended for a
light hearted audience and has a humorous tone to it, it also appeals directly to the readers emotions.
Sedaris develops ethos, or credibility quite early on in the article. The introduction informs the
reader that Sedaris is an accomplished playwright and has had his work featured on the National Public
Radio regularly. This information lets the reader know that this man is accomplished and despite what
his French teacher may think, he is educated. Sedaris also addresses that this is not his first French class
and that he had taken one in New York City, prior to moving to Paris. He also mentions that he spent
quite a few summers in Normandy, so he was not a newcomer to France. Sedaris met, if not exceeded,
the prerequisites for the French class, and if his credibility was not established in the article much of the
irony would have been lost to the reader. Say this article had instead been the personal account of an
uneducated farmer who had never so much as left his hometown as traveled to Paris. The tone of the
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article would be entirely different even if the words remained the same. The readers perspective may
be completely changed simply by taking away the authors credibility and not establishing ethos.
Sedaris establishes logos in this article by backing up his claim with logic and reasoning. Taking
examples from the events that occur in the French class, the reader can begin to use inductive and
deductive reasoning to form generalizations about the events and then begin to draw a conclusion. For
example, based on the picture Sedaris paints of the teachers behavior, the reader can easily conclude
that she has an abusive personality and a superiority complex. The reader can also conclude from the
text that the students in the class are in an unhealthy learning environment and may not be getting the
most out of the class due to their teachers abuse.
The last element of the rhetorical concepts that Sedaris utilizes is kairos, or the setting of the
article. The story takes place in Paris, mainly in the classroom at the school. As for the time period of
the piece there are several items that indicate that this took place in the late 1990s. Sedaris was born
in 1956, and as he is forty-one when he had this experience that would make the year 1997. On a less
obvious note, in the beginning of the article the teacher heckles a beautiful Yugoslavian woman about
her optimistic answers to a question. The teacher then asks the woman, Oh yeah? And do you love
your little war? The war she is referring to is the Kosovo War which was fought throughout the 1990s,
and this small detail gives the reader a feel for the time period.
Sedaris combines all four of the rhetorical concepts in Me Talk Pretty One Day and in the end
successfully connects to the reader. He gets in touch emotionally with his reader, all the while using
credible logic and reasoning to validate his claim. He offers enough subtle information to effectively
create the setting of his story, giving the reader more insight to where and when the story took place.
Sedaris light-hearted and humorous writing style combined with rhetoric, produces an article which is
not only easy to identify with, but is also easy to enjoy.

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