Practice makes perfect
September 17, 2004
You know when you're looking for an expression, and you're convinced it's there, in the recesses of your brain, but however much you hit yourself around the head to try and dislodge it, it just won't budge? How infuriating is that? This happened to me yesterday, as I was editing a translation; I came across the expression "practice makes perfect", which the translator had conveyed as "La pratique rend parfait". This was a literal translation that made sense, but I knew, I just KNEW that a literal translation could be avoided, as there was an equivalent French expression. I just couldn't work it out. Then something happened, that proved to me that St Jerome (patron saint of translators) was keeping an eye on me yesterday. Just as I was giving up, Belinda, a friend who is a blacksmith, called. And the expression finally left the shadows of my mind to appear, clear as anything: "C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron" (one needs to forge to become a blacksmith).
Posted by céline, in Idioms, on September 17, 2004I didn't know we had a patron saint. That's so cool!
And to hear that he was intemperate and involved in "flame wars" with Augustine...how perfect. Just like lots of translators on various translation-related mailing lists I'm on!
How apropos! One also needs to write in order to become a writer!
Posted by Emily on September 20, 2004 1:55 AMBut that's not really equivalent, is it? It's more about learning something by doing it (as opposed to, say, reading about it) than about doing it over and over till you get it right. I mean, I can imagine contexts in which either would be appropriate, but I'm not sure I'd call it "an equivalent French expression."
/nitpick
LH, that's an interesting distinction, but I've only ever understood "c'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron" in the second meaning you mention. I've always thought it meant "keep at it and you'll get there" and not "hands-on study is the most efficient way of learning".
Posted by céline on September 22, 2004 8:02 AMOK, I'll defer to your understanding of it, since you're clearly more familiar with it than I am. [Emily Litella] Never mind! [/Emily Litella]
Posted by language hat on September 23, 2004 10:00 PMTo be honest my conclusion would be that both explanations are valid, they just see the expression from a slightly different point of view. Who's Emily Litella?
Posted by céline on September 24, 2004 9:03 AMEmily Litella was a character on the original Saturday Night Live in the U.S. circa 1975-76.
She was a hard of hearing commentator on their Weekend Update segment, who would always go into a rant on the basis of a misheard item in the news(for example, hearing Russian Jewry as Russian jewlery)Eventually, the news anchor would cut her off and point out her mistake, at which point she would look at the camera and meekly say "never mind".
could that get any more random. and how do you know all of these facts in such detail? can you say "get a life"? try finding a french expression for that!
Posted by dani on September 26, 2004 6:56 AMDani: Language is indeed quite random. I know all these facts because I'm very very clever. I'll get back to you on "get a life".
Posted by céline on September 26, 2004 8:28 PMPrevious: September 15, 2004
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