Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/110

96 The French tongue I had liked from my youth upwards: I had become acquainted with the language through a bustling life, and with a bustling life through the language. It had become my own, like a second mother-tongue, without grammar and instruction — by mere intercourse and practice. I now wished to use it with still greater fluency, and gave Strasburg the preference, as a second university residence, to other high schools; but, alas! it was just there that I had to experience the very reverse of my hopes, and to be turned rather from than to this language and these manners.

The French, who generally aim at good behaviour, are indulgent toward foreigners who begin to speak their language: they will not laugh any one out of countenance at a mistake, or blame him in direct terms. However, since they cannot endure sins committed against their language, they have a manner of repeating, and, as it were, courteously confirming, what has been said with another term, at the same time making use of the expression which should properly have been employed, thus leading the intelligent and the attentive to what is right and proper.

Now, although, if one is in earnest,—if one has self-denial enough to profess one's self a pupil, one gains a great deal, and is much advanced by this plan,—one nevertheless always feels in some degree humiliated, and, since one talks for the sake of the subject matter, also, often too much interrupted, or even distracted, so that one impatiently lets the conversation drop. This happened with me more than with others; as I always thought that I had to say something interesting, and, on the other hand, to hear something important, and did not wish to be always brought back merely to the expression,—a case which often occurred with me, as my French was just as motley as that of any other foreigner. I had observed the accent and idiom of footmen, valets, guards, young and old actors, theat-