French Idioms

Originally I was set to write this cultural paper about these French ballerinas that were supposed to shack up with us until the day of their French ballet, at which point I would be able, theoretically, to speak a little French with them and get an insight into the life of a French ballerina. But the French ballerinas turned out to be French tap dancers, and they didn’t need a place to stay, and while my friend almost insisted that I speak French to them on the day of the performance I refused because I am most certainly NOT fluent in French and the idea of being presented in that way as the ‘guy who speaks french’ was pretty petrifying.

But as it turns out, hey, someone I work with is an exchange student from France! Rather than doing the whole what’s it like to be a French girl, we went to the park and exchange idioms and cultural sayings, a few of which I’m going to list and talk a bit about. Initially, she suggested that we talk about the differences in culture between French and Americans, but it quickly became apparent that she just wanted to point out all the stuff she didn’t like/respect about American culture, which is boring and easy. For example, she said that a shop owner in France pretty much just leaves you alone as opposed to the American corporate cultural approach being filled with smiles and enthusiasm and “Just let me know if I can help you, really!” While Americans see French people as rude, French people see Americans, in this particular scenario, as bizarre. Also, she went on, American people are always saying “I love you” all the time to their significant others- which is pretty true, there is a whole lot of “I love you”s, Annie Lennox notwithstanding, flung around the airspace in America- the complaint being that it loses its meaning if you say it all the time, which is true, and in fact I have found that the French have this particular taciturn cultural aspect in common with the Japanese. I would further like to assert that I see this as an evolved sensibility, wordless understanding being the idea, one that implies love is more complex and great than three simple words can describe unless they are conveyed through song, where various instruments bear the task of delivering the complexity of human emotion.

But Charlotte agreed and was enthusiastic to trade idioms with me. I was happy with this take on the cultural paper, though I don’t know if I’ll get away with it, because I know that you’re never really speaking the language you are studying unless you can use those weird little sayings that don’t make literal sense but inject real liveliness into language. I was lucky to have Charlotte- I often find idioms in my enormous French dictionary, which I can’t trust because once an idiom is archived in a dictionary it’s probably been around long enough to where if I were to use it I would sound like a total dork.

“Raining cats and dogs.” (raining really heavily)
A bit old fashioned, nobody really says it.
Possible Etymology: Maybe a tornado kicked up a kennel. It rains some pretty weird stuff that way.
Its French counterpart: ‘Il pleut comme vache qui pisse.” (It’s raining like a pissing cow)
In this case, I imagine that when this is spoken in french not many people actually imagine a cow pissing.

“Beating about the bush” (stalling, avoiding the issue)
Still in use fairly regularly.
etymology: From hunting. Beating bushes to get the birds to go flying
It’s French Counterpart: “Tourner autour du pot” (turn around the cooking pot)

“Making your blood boil” (getting you really angry”
French counterpart: “Son sang n’a fait qu’un tour” (his blood didn’t turn)
The idea being the anger is so severe that there is interference with blood circulation

“Never say Never” “Knock on wood”
French counterpart: “Il ne faut pas dire ‘fontaine’ je ne boirai pas de ton eau” (If you don’t say “fountain” I won’t drink your water.)
Apparently, this means a cross between to two english idioms, i.e. “don’t speak too soon.” Also, if one speaks only “Il ne faut pas dire ‘fontaine’, ” the rest is implied, just like “Speak of the Devil (and he may come)” and “When in Rome (do as the Romans do).”

“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched” (don’t assume you have won)
Another of many agribund idioms.
French counterpart: “Vendre la peau de l’our avant de l’avoir tuer” (to sell the bearskin before killing it) Again, one can stop at ‘l’ours’ and the rest is implied.

“Hit the ground running” (to set to work as the earliest possible moment)
French counterpart: “Attraper le train en marche” (catch the moving train)

It was my assumption that I would find, after putting these down, a common difference between English and French idioms, but I can’t really see anything on the surface, and I see now that a real study of it would take a lot of research and a much better grasp of the French language than I have as of yet.