Blog 4

The similarity between Asimov and Sedaris realization about language is that they both feel as if they are a foreigner to something, and both are intimated by others because they lack a certain skill or talent that others posses. In the article What Is Intelligence, Anyway? by Isaac Asimov, Asimov feels he is academically smart but he is not good at working with his hands. Asimov occassionally does very well in tests and would score very highly comparing to an average person. But he claims he would not be able to fix his car even if something went wrong. He says " In a world where i could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly." His auto-repair man referred to him as being "goddamned educated" but not " very smart." He felt uneasy about that and was a little let down. Where in the case of Sedaris from the article Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris talks about how learning french was pretty difficult when he first attended his french class he was more nervous then ever. He felt intimated by all the other young, attractive and well dressed students. Sedaris felt humiliated when his teacher singled him out front of the whole class because he didnt know how to pronounce a certain word correctly. In both articles the main character which is the author feels belittled by others. In Sedaris's case it was his teacher who made him feel inferior and in Asimov's case it was his auto-repair man.