Me Talk Pretty One Day

The title of Sedaris’s book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, with its grammatically incorrect phrasing suggests an emphasis on the importance of language and fluency in his life. Specifically, it applies to the time when he was taking a French class in Paris and struggling through his language lessons. In France, he gains a hyper-awareness of his relationship to language as a non-French speaker. His awkwardness prompts him to pursue fluency in French despite many hiccups, and he realizes eventually that memorization of vocabulary alone is not sufficient for true fluency in another language. However, his attempts at learning the language remind him of play, possibility, and entry into French life. While Sedaris is notoriously obstinate in his ways, his first breakthrough in his French class leads him to demonstrate his excitement to his teacher: “Talk more, you, plus, please, plus” (173). While the phrasing is clumsy, Sedaris expresses that his language acquisition is a work in progress, one from which he is learning to draw joy.

Sedaris’s relationship to the French language is also derived from early fascination with English. As a young child with a speech impediment struggling through speech therapy sessions, he discovers the playfulness of language by accident.