As someone who tried, and failed, to learn a second language as an adult, I was charmed by this book. David Sedaris and his boyfriend decided to make a big move to Paris, and the author could not speak French. What could go wrong? Quite a bit. Note, the live readings were much funnier than the recorded ones. He’s so much better with an audience ( )

Some good essays on learning a second language. ( )

This collection is absolutely hilarious! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can’t wait to read more of Sedaris. ( )

The 6th book of collected essays by David Sedaris is Me Talk Pretty One Day. In part one, Sedaris touches on speech therapy for his lisp at school, guitar lessons from a midget, inherited traits, artistic talent, sibling swearing, family pets, working as a teacher, toilet legacies, odd jobs, eating out in NYC, visitors to NYC, outward appearances, and technophobia. Part two focuses mainly on his life with his partner Hugh in France and explores travelling to France, taking French language lessons, feast days, the sex of words, Hugh’s childhood in Africa, word puzzles, movie subtitles, the behaviour of vacationing Americans, epic daydreams, food economy and IQ tests. My favourite chapter was Jesus Shaves, which almost caused me to have a bladder accident. Sedaris has the listener constantly smiling, chuckling, giggling and often laughing out loud. Sedaris is witty and clever. Reading his work is an unalloyed pleasure: listening to him read his work multiplies the pleasure. Warning: listening to this in public will draw attention to yourself as you snicker and laugh out loud. ( )

I love David Sedaris, and I love lost-in-translation humor, so of course this is my favorite of his collections: David Sedaris attempting--without great success--to learn to speak French while living in France. His self-deprecating humor works especially well here, and the self-cultural-deprecation of the Ugly American who comes to France "dressed as though you've come to mow its lawns". My favorite stories are the title story, "The Youth in Asia," "See You Again Yesterday," and "Picka Pocketoni." ( )