FRENCH PROVERBS – EPISODE 3: HUMAN BODY WISDOM
So, do you know how to listen to your body?
It’s a very wise piece of advice!
The idea that your body knows best what it needs is something that some people need to obey.
Check out the article below for some body pep-talk and watch the video for some French worth obeying! 🙂
(This week: the verb OBÉIR – to obey)
This is the third episode from our series – read our first and second article.
Make sure you read the proverbs below – when you hear them in conversation, you really want to know what they mean – or else you may be excluded from the group fun.
The most fascinating element of proverbs is their multi-dimensionality for sure, but their strongest dimension is cultural. They act as references, intervening in situations where communication is shared by speakers of the same language, but where metaphor is needed. With it they express the often conservative and contradictory wisdoms of the time, as well as everyday experience.
The body parts, when personalized, are a lot of fun to observe what they can represent and teach us, and how they can convince us to be wiser.
French language has such a depth of wisdom, and it tells us that yes, we should open our ear to even our body parts, and borrow some of their un-spoken approach to a full, wise and unexpectedly succulent life.
Here are some of the most popular proverbs related to our own body parts.
Younger or Wiser?
« Loin des yeux, loin du coeur. »
When someone leaves us, we soon forget them.
« Oeil pour oeil, dent pour dent. »
The punishment must be proportional to the offense committed.
« Miel sur la bouche, fiel sur le coeur. »
He who speaks softly may have bad intentions hidden.
« La vérité sort de la bouche des enfants. »
Children, innocent people never lie.
« Il faut tourner sept fois la langue dans sa bouche avant de parler. »
You should never talk or give yuor opinion too fast, you have to think before.
« Ventre affamé n’a point d’oreille. »
The hungry can not listen. His desires and needs prevent him from hearing others.
« Au royaume des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois. »
Even if one is poor, he is still the best among those poorer than themselves.
« Rien ne sèche plus vite que les larmes. »
We quickly forget the woes and troubles.
« Rira bien qui rira le dernier. »
He who believes to triumph for a moment will eventually be the loser.
« Qui trop embrasse mal étreint. »
He who undertakes too many things at the same time ends up succeeding in nothing.
« On ne peut pas être au four et au moulin. »
It is impossible to be everywhere at the same time.
« Qui dort dîne. »
A good night’s sleep replaces a good meal.
These make good punch lines
« Il vaut mieux prévenir que guérir. »
You should rather prevent than trying to treat the pain when it is too late.
« Aux grands maux les grands remèdes. »
As the disease or problems are serious, the remedy must be more powerful.
« Entre deux maux il faut choisir le moindre. »
When there is a choice between two difficult options, it is best to opt for the less unpleasant.
« Trop de docteurs, point de médecins. »
There are too many people who claim to know, and not enough that can actually heal.
« Qui veut voyager loin ménage sa monture. »
If you want to go further, you must retain your strengths and resources.
« Il faut que jeunesse se passe. »
We must excuse the errors and excesses of youth.
« Les voyages forment la jeunesse. »
The travel experience should be part of the education of youth.
« Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait. »
Young lacks experience and elderly lacks physical strength.
Pick a handful and keep them in your sleeve
When you have so many things to learn – grammar, pronunciation, phrase construction, verb conjugation, oh-là-là – how do you approach learning the proverbs? Do you memorize them? Do you have a cheat sheet that you peek at during the cocktail party?
In the J’Ouellette® Intensif program, you will understand many French expressions by learning how to find the stem of the words and how to see the subtext and undertone of expressions.
The difference between French and English significant: while the English words hold the context like a bag-pack, the French words need the context to be clearly defined. For example: « livre » means book or pound (depending on the gender); how do you know when is one and not the other?
Like this example, there are also families of words with concrete and abstract meaning which are easy to identify, once you have a good eye for the stem that can be found in all the words.
Want to know how to master the French expressions? Try J’Ouellette® Intensif and never look back to the struggles of the past years.
Inspired from french.hku.hk
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!
Which part of this article most resonated with you and why? What is the one action that you’ll take today? 🙂
Let me guess.
Do you constantly have the feeling that you can’t hear what the French say and you don’t know how to read all the French words because they are written so much differently than they sound?
Learn 3 secrets that will help you be self sufficient in the way you pronounce French words – even if you don’t know what they mean – so that you can read that sophisticated menu in your favorite French restaurant.
Immerse yourself as you FINALLY reach your dream of becoming bilingual, learn to speak Parisian French on Skype and BREAK your language barrier!
…and now, please SHARE this article with your friends. They’ll love you for it! : )
Always in your corner,
Llyane
photo credit: A.G. Photographe, Marc Nouss
This one speaks to me the most: Qui trop embrasse mal étreint.
I am always talking on so many things. I have learned to stick to one thing and then move on from there.
Merci, chérie 😉
~ Llyane
J’aime bien celui la:
« Loin des yeux, loin du coeur. »
When someone leaves us, we soon forget them.
(And please feel free to correct my French) 😉
Lovely article as always, Llyane!
celui-là 😉
Yes, it is one of my favourites too, though it gives me a sting of sadness..
Ooh, I love this one: « Il vaut mieux prévenir que guérir. »
You should rather prevent than trying to treat the pain when it is too late. I think knowing how to prevent health problems and treating the cause rather that the effect when they occur is how we’ll achieve true health. Great series!
Thank you so much, Amanda 🙂
Proverbs are really interesting. For me, I know the ones from my childhood. I’ve heard some, not all. I work with this one French guy, and he spews out proverbs like no one I’ve ever seen. Amazing! It’s also inspiring.
Thanks for the little bit of inspiration.
Always my pleasure, Nathalie! 🙂
wow i find your french proverbs really interesting!!!
this one touches me the most: « Qui veut voyager loin ménage sa monture. »
If you want to go further, you must retain your strengths and resources
i like how it talks about strength and going further~_~!
Hey, Victoria, you’re back! 🙂
Lovely way to see it, yes, it’s a proverb that rings true to me too, because I also love to “go far”.
‘You should rather prevent than trying to treat the pain when it is too late.’
I would agree. But if you don’t manage to prevent it – don’t avoid it when it comes! Feel it to heal.
Interesting, proverbs. Sometimes helpful, sometimes not so!
Yes, Laura, sometimes they only express a situation, as am observation, not so much helping it 🙂
I love the topic of your post. I agree that my body knows best what it needs and listening to it is so important. The proverb that resonated most for me was, “Qui dort dîne” or “A good night’s sleep replaces a good meal.” It speaks to the importance of sleep for our health and the fact that we need to listen to our body’s need for it.
Yes, Leanne, listening to our body is a science few get curious about.