On the spot

You can sit in a classroom for years learning vocabulary for essays and exams, as I have, but there is a surprising amount of vocabulary that you won’t come across until you come across it, if that makes sense. For example, although I can happily discuss existentialism, euthanasia and the importance of props in Racine’s plays, it wasn’t until I was playing games with some of my students that I came across ‘sauter à cloche-pied’. Sure, it doesn’t come up in everyday speech (in fact, I don’t think I’ve used it since then), but it’s fascinating to think about how much you don’t know until you find yourself in a situation where you need it.

I’ve also come across some pretty fascinating idioms and phrases, which seem rather bizarre until I started looking at our own and seeing how random they are. My favourite French one is currently ‘se prendre pour le nombril du monde’ (literally ‘to take oneself for the belly button of the world’, the English equivalent being of course ‘To think oneself God’s gift). I think it’s once you start becoming familiar with these sorts of phrases that are you unique to a particular language that you’re really getting to grips with it. I’ve got many left to discover!