ipl-logo

Summary Of The Professor Is A Drop Out By David Sedaris

498 Words2 Pages

Have you ever had an obstacle that you had to overcome in learning a different language? In David Sedaris “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and Beth Johnson’s “The Professor is a Drop Out”, the individual’s trials are homogeneous in many ways, this stems from them being older students attempting to learn a different language. David Sedaris expresses the difficulties in learning French in a French-speaking nation, author Beth Johnson take the reader on a journey into the life of Lupe Quintanilla the reader learns of her struggles to learn English when she and her family moved to Texas. Both texts show the hurdles that these two people had to embark upon while being insecure in an environment that didn’t prioritize their native languages. But victoriously, …show more content…

The message in these two texts convince people that by hard work and dedication you can overcome the fear of being inadequate in their learning abilities no matter what age you are or what obstacles you had to cross.

David Sedaris had concerns of being a hoary student at the age of forty-one returning to school, how hard it was for him to learn French and being taught the language by a teacher that often trivialized the class. After many hurdles, he had to cross he then realize that he was being way too hard on himself and that he wasn’t the only student in the class that struggled to grasp the French language. After a while he came to understand that it’s a process and with hard work learning the language will become easier.

Lupe Quintanilla had the same hurdles to cross being from Mexico she and her family moved to Brownsville Texas the only language she spoke was Spanish the school labeled her as being “retarted” being humiliated in her class of much younger students she beg her grandparents not to send her back to school. As she got older and married and had children of her own she was informed that her children were also labeled as “slow learners” not wanting her children to experience the humiliation that she went through she tried many times to get help from different schools to learn

Show More
Related
167 Words | 1 Pages

Sedaris had believed his childhood was so boring in comparison to his partner Hugh’s childhood. Sedaris compares his childhood to Hugh’s childhood a lot until he started to have feelings of resentment towards him. Sedaris says, “We had a collie and a house cat… They had a monkey and two horses named Charlie Brown and Satan… I threw stones at stop sighs… Hugh threw stones at crocodiles” (Paragraph 8).

Read More
936 Words | 4 Pages

Often times, it is assumed that learning does not have negative consequences and leads to one’s enlightenment What people don’t realize is that being thrown into the light can burn. Associating learning with pain is clearly illustrated in both Plato’s Republic and Frederick Douglass’ The Education of Frederick Douglass. Both works represent people who move past their ignorance through the acquisition of knowledge and step into the light, both literally and metaphorically; they become aware of their own situations and with that comes pain. Book seven of Plato’s Republic (trans. 1968) presents the allegory of the cave and the idea that learning isn’t always pleasant.

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

Many people around the globe can speak more than one language. In some countries, like Den-mark, it is required by the government that you learn a foreign language at school. Of course not all countries are as privileged as Denmark. Some people have to reach out themselves if they feel the need to learn a new language. One of those people is 41-year old David Sedaris, who wrote an essay called ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ in 2005.

Read More
493 Words | 2 Pages

"Mother Tongue" was written by Amy Tan, who is famous for her writings of her experiences as a Chinese immigrant growing up in American culture. Her primary purpose is to inform the reader about the prejudices her mother faced because her mother could not speak perfect English. In her essay, Tan shares stories of her mother's broken English and how people took advantage of her mother. Tan's intended audience are those who are unaware of people like her mother whose limited English is taken advantage of in everyday life. The experiences Tan shares with the readers is an emotion inducing strategy which Tan uses throughout her writing and it is proved to be very effective.

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

The first time one is able to comprehend the meaning of a word is a momentous childhood moment that is forever engraved in one’s memory. Books and reading are significantly impactful to people’s lives; Mark Twain said that, “books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.” This statement is apropo for Sherman Alexie, who was a Native American living on a reservation during the time he learned to read. Sherman Alexie convinces his audience that an education is crucial to being successful by using personal anecdotes to captivate and create a connection with his audience and repetition to reiterate the importance of having an education. Alexie's use of personal anecdotes fortifies the impact he has on his audience.

Read More
804 Words | 4 Pages

To be successful, you have to overcome obstacles that will make you stronger in the long run. Both of the texts “The Osage Firebird” and “A Life Painting Animals” inform readers that people have to overcome obstacles and barriers to become successful, but the first text did a better job at developing this idea. “The Osage Firebird” and “A Life Painting Animals” provide many examples for conquering obstacles and becoming victorious. Both of these texts are great at encouraging people to keep trying and overcome obstacles to end up successful In order to be successful, you have to conquer certain obstacles.

Read More
284 Words | 2 Pages

Literary Analysis of “Us & Them” by David Sedaris There are many people in the world that we don’t understand. David Sedaris’ short story “Us & Them” is a high comedy that uses irony and wordplay to convey the idea that just because someone isn’t exactly like you doesn’t mean you can be rude to them. In this story, there are many examples of word-play.

Read More
438 Words | 2 Pages

But even when they didn’t learn English themselves, their children grew up speaking it. Thousands of first-generation Americans still strive to learn English, but others face reduced educational and career opportunities because they have not mastered this basic skill they need to get ahead. According to the 1990 census, 40 percent of the Hispanics born in the United States do not graduate from high school, and the Department of Education says that a lack of proficiency in English is an important factor in the drop-out rate. People and agencies that favor providing services only in foreign languages want to help people who do not speak English, but they may be doing these people a disservice by condemning them to a linguistic ghetto from which they cannot easily escape.

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

In Richard Rodriguez’s essay, “The Achievement of Desire” he brings you through important memories of his life that impacted his education, and more specifically his reading and writing. As a child, he was eager to learn and ready to soak up all the knowledge he could get. He received many awards and good feedback from his teachers which gave him all the more motivation to learn more. Soon his motivation came out of annoyance of his parents.

Read More
1142 Words | 5 Pages

Today, you either get educated or you get stuck in a dead-end job without much prospect for the future. The gap between those with a higher education and those without one is becoming wider with advancements in technology and the growing competitiveness of the job market. There are many dangers of this gap. One such danger is the people who have a higher educations having the leisure to ignore those who are less educated. Joy Castro in her essays “Hungry” and “On Becoming Educated” discusses her life and educational journey.

Read More
1635 Words | 7 Pages

To be orphaned from my native language felt, and still feels, like a crucial decision” (Lin 6). Yiyun Lin is caught between letting go her native language and wishes she can speak both because they both identify her. She struggles on choosing one of them and having one of them as a memory or a dream. This not only becomes a struggle for her, but an eye open decision on solving the problem of how she can combine a private language into a public language. “English is my private language.

Read More
1764 Words | 8 Pages

Having a second language in your background is so impactful on one’s life, providing them with more skills. This is the 21st century and having this skill helps an individual be

Read More
954 Words | 4 Pages

The history of my literacy has been a long road of a frustration and learned lessons. As a child, I was a bit of a loner so reading and writing were the closest thing to a social life for me. The things that I bottled up inside came out through my writing and it became somewhat of a pass time for me. As long I could remember literacy as has been an important value for me in my life because from very young age I got express my true self without being judged by the outside. Even though in my later years I would deal with some heartaches and set back that lead me to give up on my love for reading.

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

After reading Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, my perspective changed about the struggles for people who are not as good at English. All throughout this article Tan uses personal experience from her mom to show the readers the struggle while also using primary sources to back up her claim. All the evidence backs up her initial claim and as the reader your perspective changes after reading about how she personally was effected. The author 's main claim of Mother Tongue is to persuade people so respect people who struggle with English because she has serval personal connections, she has fact based proof, and she is an experienced writer on this topic and in general. All throughout the reading she uses many personal stories and personal experiences on how difficult it was for her mother to go through her everyday life.

Read More
977 Words | 4 Pages

Sedaris goal in writing Me Talk Pretty One day is that learning French and living in a foreign country as an older adult is both difficult and rewarding. Through hard work and extensive studying he eventually starts to understand what his teacher is telling him. “And it struck me that, for the first time since arriving in France, I could understand every word that someone was saying.” (Sedaris) I agree with Sedaris in his claim that learning something new can be difficult and rewarding.

Read More

More about Summary Of The Professor Is A Drop Out By David Sedaris

Related Topics

Open Document