I’ve set aside all of July this year to study the French language. And, when I say all, I mean 8 hours a day 5 days a week for four weeks. Instead of vacation this year, I’m in class pursuing a lifelong goal.
I’m not new to French. In fact I’ve had a love affair with it since the late ’90s, and it’s one of those languages that has continued to challenge me. Whether it is improving pronunciation or learning more vocab, French doesn’t disappoint in its complexity.
This summer, I’m focusing much of my time on learning more idiomatic expressions, and today I came across a phrase that I immediately took to and which fits my situation nicely.
The phrase is
“C’est en forgeant qu’on devient forgeron.”
My textbook translated it as Practice makes perfect.
Practice Makes Perfect isn’t a bad translation. I think word-for-word translations occur overly often, and the point of idiomatic expressions is that the meaning is more than the words alone.
In this case, however, I relished the literal translation because of its roots in blacksmithing, coupled with my desire to become a blacksmith.
There are perhaps a few different ways one might translate the phrase, but the direct approach yields the following.
“It is through forging that one becomes a blacksmith.”
This may seem silly to some, but I think it’s delightful and of course instructful. (yes, I just made that word up.)
Language is more than the words themselves; it is the meaning behind them that matters.
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
