Coleman Rohde

4/2/21

David Sedaris Questions

1. What are some of the details early in this essay that David Sedaris uses to establish a

humorous tone?

Sedaris replaces the words that he doesn’t understand in his english translation of

french with gibberish. For example, in the beginning of the story the teacher says, “If you have

not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room. Has everyone

apzkiubjxow? Everyone? Good, we shall begin.” This adds a humorous tone to the passage as it

puts the reader in the shoes of the author. It helps the reader to understand the ridiculousness of

the situation by forcing them to imagine they were Sedaris, unable to understand the important

parts of what someone is saying and just kind of playing along with it anyways.

2. How does Sedaris characterize the teacher? Is she a stereotype? An effective teacher?

Intentionally cruel? Support your answer with details from the text. Sedaris characterizes

the teacher as cruel and unrelenting. For example, she literally tells Sedaris “I hate you… I really

really hate you” and this hate is derived from his lack of fluency in the language. I believe that

the teacher is most certainly the stereotypical rude french person who belittles people for not

speaking the language. However, despite all of this, she is an effective teacher as in the end

Sedaris was able to understand the language almost fully by mid-October when he had just

arrived sometime in September or August. Her unrelenting style of teaching forced the language

upon her students.

3. Identify an example of hyperbole and an example of understatement from the text.

 “The first Anna… had front teeth the size of tombstones” is an example of hyperbole

because her teeth aren’t literally that large but the passage indicates to us that her teeth were

abnormally large.

“While I can honestly say that I love leafing through medical textbooks devoted to severe

dermatological conditions, the hobby is beyond the reach of my French vocabulary” is an

understatement because medical textbook jargon is beyond his reach let along medical textbook

jargon in a non-native language like French.

4. What aspect of the experience of being a student does Sedaris count on as common

ground between himself and the reader?

Sedaris identifies how school can feel intimidating and that that is a shared experience

between him in the reader. For example, he says, “The first day of class was nerve-racking

because I knew I’d be expected to perform” Nearly everyone has been in a situation in school

where they know that they are almost predestined to fail because not enough work had been done

on their part. It might be an unfinished school presentation, or rushing to do an assignment 5

minutes before it’s due to turn in, everyone has experienced a situation of pure dread where you

have little more than yourself to blame.