Me Talk Pretty One Day

The reading, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris, was a story I can relate to, because I am a 41 year old going back to school.

What I got out of this story is going back to school late in life can be very intimidating.   Almost like learning a foreign language. 

Walking into class and you feel like all eyes are on you and everyone seems to carry themselves with ease and confidence.  That is very intimidating.  Makes you feel like Pa Kettle as Sedaris says, with everyone dressed in the latest styles young and attractive.   In my case, Ma Kettle.   I wonder how many even know who Ma and Pa Kettle are?

You can sense the hostility of the teacher and how she is speaking to the students when she asks them to state their names, nationalities, and occupations, and a brief list of things they liked and disliked and it soon becomes apparent to me that any answer would be the wrong answer.  I know how I feel on the first day, worried that I am going to say something stupid, or sound “old.”

I liked Sedaris’s questions, How often is one asked what he loves in this world?  Then publicly ridiculed for the answer?  He then recalls his mom flushed with wine yelling out all that she loved and him and his sisters waiting….I think to hear her say their names instead she says “Tums.”

I feel that Sedaris was waiting all his life for approval and recognition and wanting to belong somewhere and probably searching for the words of love his mother could not give him.  No matter what the teacher said to him he still pressed on spending hours every night studying. He did take comfort in the fact that his fellow students felt the same.  I think in the same sense he was always searching for his mother’s approval and never got it.  I think that the teacher and mother have a connection in the story.  Even in the end when Sedaris realizes that he has understood what the teacher was saying even though it was negative.  He has a feeling of euphoria just from knowing that he understood every word she was saying.

I think the understanding he talks about is the understanding of himself.

I really liked this reading.  I ended up reading it over and over, and each time I did I found more hidden meaning to it.  Like the part Understanding doesn’t mean that you can suddenly speak the language.  Far from it.  It’s a small step, nothing more, yet its rewards are intoxicating and deceptive.