"Je ne parle pas francais" is unlike most of Mansfield's earlier stories, not only in its use of a first-person narrator as the central character of the story but also in its development of a masculine point of view. The story is also more open about sexual matters than most of Mansfield's earlier work, particularly in the unexpurgated version that Mansfield wanted published. Unfortunately, the censored version is usually published, and Mansfield's portrait of Duquette loses much of its edge.