Language Socialization and Identity

Abstract

In Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), essayist David Sedaris recounts his adventures as an adult voluntarily learning French. Like many other Americans abroad, Sedaris was surprised to discover that the language did not come naturally to him as a side effect of life in a foreign country. Instead, he observed that his status as a foreign adult placed him at a disadvantage, and he became actively jealous of French babies whose first-language development is carefully nurtured by surrounding adults. In fact he writes, ‘I wanted to be a baby, but instead, I was an adult who talked like one, a spooky man-child demanding more than his fair share of attention’ (2000: 161).